Emma Lonsdale insists if she has inspired others to take up freestyle skiing then her first and last appearance at the Winter Olympics in Sochi can be deemed a roaring success.
After a two-week wait to compete, Lonsdale finally made her Olympic debut as part of the first ever women’s freestyle ski halfpipe event to be held at the Games.
The 29-year-old missed out on the final by six places as she ranked 18th in qualification after scoring 53.80 and 53.20 from her two runs at the Rosa Khutor Extreme Park.
Lonsdale will now retire from the sport but hopes to have encouraged others to take up skiing at a Games where Jenny Jones won Britain’s first Olympic medal on snow with snowboard slopestyle bronze.
“I’m retiring, that’s it. I was going to retire a few years ago and then halfpipe became an Olympic discipline,” she said.
“With Jenny Jones doing as amazingly as she did, the more people who get involved in grassroots the better.
“That is where we have all come from, we have all come from dry slopes and indoor centres and proved that we can compete on the world stage and get medals and the more people who get involved the better.
“I was very excited out there. I’m very happy to be have been able to compete. I didn’t ski my very best. I missed a few grabs, which isn’t ideal, but I tried my hardest under quite a lot of pressure out there.”
© Sportsbeat 2014