Charlie Guest has her eyes on a third Winter Olympics after capping a remarkable journey to Beijing by finishing 21st in the women’s slalom.
The 28-year-old alpine skier battled back from breaking four vertebrae in her spine in 2014 to make her Olympic bow at PyeongChang 2018 but with injury marring her build-up she finished 33rd in South Korea.
The pacey Perthshire athlete had a far superior cycle this time around and broke new ground in January becoming Britain’s best female slalom skier after recording a lifetime best 13th place in the Schladming World Cup in Austria.
Guest went well in her first run at the Yanqing National Alpine Ski Centre, recording a time of 53.84 seconds to leave her 15th.
And she appeared to again be making good progress down the Chinese slopes second time around until a late error forced her wide and left her narrowly outside the top 20.
Guest said: “I wanted to give myself the best shot of top 15, top ten. I really tried and took a lot of risks but obviously it didn’t pay off for me today.
"But I'm so excited with how this whole season has gone and I'm really excited that my skiing is good enough to be in that top 15 as we saw in the first run. I hope we don’t see any mistakes like that in four years’ time.
“I think the next few years are going to be really good fun and I’ll see you back in Milan.”
A good run from @Charlie_Guest1 as she finishes 21st in the women's slalom.#TeamGB | #Beijing2022 pic.twitter.com/gDZ5uyrCZJ
— Team GB (@TeamGB) February 9, 2022
This sport takes no prisoners even if you are USA superstar Mikaela Shiffrin - who has won more World Cup slalom races than any other alpine skier - as she fell after four gates for the second Olympic race in a row.
There was also disappointment for Guest's teammate Alex Tilley who finished 22nd in the giant slalom on Monday but like Shiffrin failed to finish her first run.
And Guest admitted her heart was beating louder than usual at the startline.
“I’m really happy with my attitude. I was a bit nervous on run 1 actually but I was totally fine once into it,” she said.
“I really did give it everything I had and took the risks that I knew I had to.”
The mountains can be a lonely spot when things aren’t going to plan and Guest revealed the strength of support from her friends and family means the world and has been crucial to helping her return to top form following several injuries.
“If I look back to where I was in PyeongChang four years ago to where I am today, it’s completely different,” reflected Guest.
“I have my whole family, friends and everyone at home to thank for sticking by me for the last four years to get here.
“It has been a difficult time and a really huge journey. My team and everyone has really put everything into this.
“I’m really excited for the future and for the next few seasons as well because my skiing is just going from strength to strength at the moment.”