I once was so young, ambitious and focused that I didn’t believe there was a life after skiing. Yes, I know, this was very ignorant but it helped me stay in the present and channel all my focus and energy into achieving my short term goal, to become an Olympic skier. After my fourth Olympics in Sochi, I remember the BBC being at the finish asking me about my presumed retirement announcement. I quickly shut them down. I was high on adrenaline and more pain free in that moment than I had been in the preceding three years. “Not now. I want more.” ...

In summer 2012, I was lucky enough to be invited to attend the London Olympics. Seeing the incredible positivity surrounding sport, whether it be the 100 metre final or BMX’ing filled me with joy and excitement about a ‘new age’ of sport that would begin to take over society! I know how fortunate I am to have lived a life through sport and learn so many life lessons from it.

The strength of this cog is such that it has the ability to both create G.O.A.T (greatest of all time) athletes and those who never live up to their potential. It has many names - mentality, psychology, mindset, characteristic, ethos…. It is the hardest cog to master, to control, to analyse and to collect data on. How many times have you heard - if only we could bottle up a bit of that confidence?

My weakest cog and the one that I had to be most cognitive of was more holistic than the rest. In some areas I was good. Maybe not for the right reasons but I used to have enough rest - unfortunately instead of it purely stemming from being a performance indicator it was superstition. I needed 9 hours sleep. So I would count back from when I needed to wake up (and sometimes come spring time that was very early) and make sure I was in bed by 8pm. Then I knew I would have my spark.

On paper, ski racing is very much an individual sport but that is far from the truth. Behind the racer is an incredibly important support team. From the coach who takes on all the responsibility for tactical and technical input, to the physical trainer who helps the athlete get in their best form and the physio who helps the athlete get to their peak physical condition.