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Sky Academy Sports Scholarships: Elise Christie discusses training in Korea ahead of a new short-track season

Image: Elise Christie: Is ready to put her Olympic disappointment behind ahead of a new season

As Elise Christie steps up her preparations for the new short-track season she can be relatively confident that it won’t be quite as eventful as her last.

The Sky Academy Sports Scholar retained her European 1000m title and won 500m silver at the World Championships but, somewhat unfairly perhaps, the abiding memory of her 2013-14 campaign is the three disqualifications at the Winter Olympic Games in Sochi.

It’s good because I’ve learnt things that I can bring back over here but also learnt what we do better
Elise Christie on training in Korea

Christie has admitted that she struggled to get over her Olympic disappointment in the months afterwards but, having overcome that, the GB star is now ready to redouble her efforts and go again in 2014-15.

Indeed, Christie’s work for the new season is at an advanced stage having just returned to the UK having spent two months training in Korea. Other than the obvious culture shock and a different way of life, the 24-year-old Scot had to adapt to spending time in a country where the top skaters are as famous as Premier League footballers in England.

“Obviously it was a shock. It is a different lifestyle; short-track is like football out there. Everything is available, all the speed skaters are famous - it’s quite funny,” said Christie.

“There are pros and cons to it, the pros are that it is very focused around short-track so everything is set around you, so you’re kind of spoilt in a sense but then there is lots of pressure on those athletes as they go out to compete because everyone is so into it.”

As much as Christie was keen to go to Asia to pick up valuable experience and new training techniques, she was apprehensive about the trip. It wasn’t the fact that she was likely to be recognised in itself that worried her but more the reception she might get following her collision with Korean Park Seung-Hi in the 500m Winter Olympic final.

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Image: Christie was subjected to internet abuse from some Korean fans in Sochi

The coming together resulted in Christie being disqualified and Park having to settle for bronze having been leading at the time of the crash. In the days that followed, Christie was subjected to cyber-bullying to such an extent that she quit Twitter and the Korean skating authorities felt the need to come out and publicly call for a stop to the abuse.

“I had a lot of fear going out after what happened at the Games – I was going to stand out over there, I’ve got blond hair for a start,” admitted Christie.

“I was quite shocked when I went over there because if anyone did recognise me, it was positively and wanted a photo with me so that was good.”

Although there were issues as far as the language was concerned, Christie was full of praise for the training system and confident that she can apply what she learnt to her training with the GB squad in Nottingham.

“It’s good because I’ve learnt things that I can bring back over here but also learnt what we do better, so hopefully you can mix it and get the best outcome from it,” she added.

“The main thing I got out of it was that I was very outcome focused and they’re not over there, it’s more ‘if you do this many laps, that’s better than someone who skated faster but they’ve trained less hard.’

“I think at times you have to be outcome focused and you have to skate fast because you have to learn to be confident at that speed but then on the other side sometimes you need to be training to the point that you can barely skate anymore. It’s going to be good moving forward to mix the two together.”

Great Britain's Elise Christie
Image: All smiles: The Scottish skater is now looking forward to getting back on the ice

With the first World Cup event of the season now in her sights, Christie is planning on using the six race series as an opportunity to work on improving her weaknesses rather than simply prioritising results.

“A lot of the goals are going to be based around things that didn’t work very well at the Games because this is the year that I really need to practice and not focus on the outcomes,” she explained.

“I’ll be trying to get involved a lot more in the racing, which does make me a lot more tired but I’m never going to get better at it unless I do it. At the moment I either lead the race or sit at the back of the race and go at the end. So it could be quite hard for my ego again but I think I need to train ego quite a lot!”

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Elise Christie discusses her 2018 Winter Olympic dreams.

An even more pressing issue than the forthcoming season for the Livingston-born skater is the Scottish referendum and the prospect of independence for her homeland. A ‘yes’ vote could lead to complications for Christie moving forward and she admitted that she was in the dark over what the immediate implications would be for her as a key member of the GB short-track squad.

“We haven’t really spoken about it much so I’m not really sure what would happen. I’m happy with the system now so I don’t really want it to change but I’ve got no control over it whatsoever. I’m not even allowed to vote because I live in England,” said Christie.

“I don’t know what will happen but I just hope that the changes don’t come into effect until I finish my career. I think it will take a long time to change things over and things like that so hopefully even if independence does happen I will compete in my last Olympics as a British athlete.”

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