Over eight months on and Elise Christie’s Sochi heartbreak still hits her hard but on the eve of the new season, the Great Britain short track skater insists she is ready and raring to throw herself into the next Olympic cycle.
The 24-year-old headed to Russia with high hopes of claiming a medal on her second Winter Olympics appearance having retained her European 1000m title in the last competition before Sochi.
However things did not go to plan, with disqualification from the 500m final followed by an infringement on the finishing line of her 1500m heat and a penalty in the 1000m semi-final.
Despite the disappointment, Christie bounced back at the World Championships in March, claiming 500m silver to finish the season strongly.
And after a break over the summer, the Scot has already shown she means business claiming her fifth consecutive overall points victory at the Invitation Cup in Heerenveen earlier this month.
The first international event of the season served as a warm up for the start of the ISU World Cup Series, which begins in Salt Lake City on November 7.
And driven on by the disappointment of Sochi, Christie can’t wait to get going.
“I made sure to chill out in the off season. We have got a four year cycle coming up for Pyeongchang 2018 so it was important for me to get away over the summer and come back ready to go,” she said.
“I’m excited about the season starting. I’m going to try and enjoy it and work on some stuff that went wrong in Sochi. I did have bad luck but there was stuff I could have done to minimalise the risks and that’s what I’m going to be working on for the next games.
“If I think about it I still struggle a bit. I had trained eight years non stop for that moment, just to have that chance and then it didn’t go my way.
“It still gets me down at times but I try to get on with it and I am sure by the end of this season with the Europeans and Worlds coming up I will have forgotten about it. I’ve been training hard and I feel good.”
While her Sochi experience on the ice did not go down as one to savour, Christie admits the support she received in the aftermath would be something she wouldn’t forget.
“It was not nice to get the abuse online that I did but at the same time the British media and public really backed me and I felt proud and really grateful for that support,” she added.
“I feel like I want to give something back and that’s part of the thing that is driving me on for Pyeongchang that I can hopefully win a medal for the country.”
© Sportsbeat 2014