History-maker Jones enjoying relaxed feeling on slopes

Jenny Jones admits she is approaching the mountains with a totally refreshed attitude following her historic snowboarding freestyle bronze in Sochi 2014.

Last February Jones, then 33, entered the record books when she became the first Briton to win a Winter Olympic medal on snow after a dramatic freestyle final in Russia.

It was another highlight in a remarkable story which began when she burst onto the scene as a talented teenager in 1999 and which also includes three X-Games gold medals in a row between 2009 and 2010.

Following the Games Jones took some time off to enjoy her success while in October she began presenting Jenny Jones’ Extreme, a monthly radio series for BBC Radio 5 Live.

However snowboarding is still firmly on the agenda although the Bristol-born athlete admits the pressure is firmly off.

“Competitively for me I’m content, which is a dangerous game because if you’re content it means you might not want to push it so much,” Jones told Ski Sunday.

“But for me, I’m content in a way that I’ll still enjoy the competitions but there won’t be anything lingering over me anymore, not at all.

“I’m just doing it because I purely enjoy the odd competition and now I’m just going to go out and have a good time, go and challenge myself with riding steep terrain and powder and splitboarding and getting photos. There’s just less to worry about now and it’s just a nice feeling.

“It is a bronze medal but honestly the colour didn’t matter. It was a medal and I got it.”

While last February proved a high point in Jones’ career, just three months earlier things were not looking as rosy after landing heavily during a training crash.

And Jones admitted the accident had left her seriously shook up before she eventually bounced back to claim bronze in Sochi.

“It wasn’t considered a serious head injury so I didn’t have a head injury, however I did actually have what’s called post concussion syndrome,” she added.

“It’s when your concussion lasts more than two or three days, into a week and then it’s kind of on going.

“I couldn’t walk outside, I couldn’t walk even to the gym because I was wobbling as if I was on a boat. I couldn’t speak to more than one person at a time, I couldn’t drive.

“That was the most terrifying injury I’ve ever had because it was in my head.”

© Sportsbeat 2015