Masterful Muir takes fifth in 'insane' final

Freestyle Skiing 08 Feb 22

Kirsty Muir realised a teenage dream by pulling off an incredible fifth-place finish on her Olympic debut in what was a simply stunning first ever women’s Big Air final.

Team GB’s youngest competitor at the Olympic Winter Games in Beijing lay down a variation of her biggest and best dub 12 trick for only the second time, scoring 90.25 on her first jump, to sit in bronze medal position after the first run.

Muir failed to land an audacious switch misty 10, a trick she was attempting for the first time in her life, on her third jump before watching on as Chinese poster girl Eileen Gu took gold in a phenomenally high-standard competition.

But despite missing out on the podium places, the 17-year-old Brit could not keep the smile off her face and said: “It was an amazing competition and the level was just insane, it feels amazing to be competing against these girls.

“I'm here to go for it and I'm really proud of myself for doing that. I've landed that trick before but I tried it with a different grab and I've only ever done that once before in competition, it's the best I've ever done it.

"This was different from anything else, I was just so excited and everything went well. I've got so much time to come again, train and get better."

Shadowed by five industrial cooling towers in the grounds of a former steel mill, Big Air Shougang is the world's first permanent venue for the event which is making its debut on the biggest stage of all.

And similarly, youngster Muir made it abundantly clear that she was relishing the experience of her maiden Games.

"The energy of the crowd and the atmosphere was absolutely amazing,” she added.

"It's a dream come true just to come to the Olympics, I'm super happy.”

Gu, nicknamed the ‘Snow Princess’, edged out France’s Tess Ledeux with the bronze going to Switzerland’s Mathilde Gremaud who described it as the “sickest final ever” and it was hard to argue with her.

Muir’s attention now switches to Sunday’s slopestyle competition where she is set to once again pose a real medal threat, but the teenager admitted she was soon heading back down to earth with a bump by returning to school in Aberdeen.

“It gives me confidence for the slopestyle, I can't wait to get there and try out the course," Muir explained.

"I've got a bit of studying to catch up on for sure, I'm focused on my next event and then it's back to school."