Teenage skiing sensation Muir hoping to hit all the right notes on the Beijing slopes

By Will Jennings

Kirsty Muir bets she’ll look good on the ski slopes at next month’s Winter Olympic Games.

And the Aberdeen teenage sensation revealed the secret soundtrack that catalysed her rise to Beijing 2022: the Arctic Monkeys.

Freestyle skier Muir, 17, will be Team GB’s youngest star in the Chinese capital where she hopes to roll out all her favourite flicks and tricks in her beloved Big Air and slopestyle events.

The Scot recently started listening to music while she competes, a tactic she believes assists her psychologically and can help her land her favourite, gravity-defying ‘DUB 12’ jump.

And it’s the upbeat strains of the Arctic Monkeys that’s proving the biggest hit as Muir aims to take the Games – which begin in under ten days’ time – by storm.

She said: “I listen to music while I compete.

“I didn’t use to – but that’s one of the things that has helped with the mental side of the sport. It just helps me get into the flow and relax a bit.

“It takes the focus off the competition and onto the skiing.

“My favourite thing to listen to is definitely the Arctic Monkeys – I really like them and they’re definitely one of my favourites.

“I think there’s a good beat and flow in the songs – they get you ready and that’s what I like.

“I love the thrill of [freestyle skiing] – there are so many new parts you get a thrill from like landing a new trick, being in the air for longer and thinking: I’m actually in the air flying.

“There’s a lot of adrenaline – and it feels amazing to be heading to the Olympics.”

Muir first threw on a pair of skis at the age of just three before honing her craft on the dry slopes of Aberdeen Snowsports Club – a venue she still thinks of as home.

She racked up a string of age group titles growing up before in 2018 – aged 13 – she won all three big air, slopestyle and halfpipe events at the BRITS Championships against a star-studded older field.

Two years later came a silver medal at the Youth Olympic Games in Lausanne and now, alongside fellow Team GB freeski stars Izzy Atkin and Katie Summerhayes, her place in Beijing is secure.

Proud Scot Muir hopes to do Aberdeen proud and can’t wait to announce herself on the global stage when she takes to the Chinese slopes.

“I’m super excited for the whole experience,” added Muir, who knows a medal at the Games would add to the 1,000-plus medals achieved by British athletes since the advent of National Lottery funding to elite sport in 1997.

“I’m definitely proud to represent Aberdeen and am looking forward to having the chance to doing it on the big stage.

“You go to the course and you don’t know exactly what tricks you’re going to be doing.

“You can see photos but you don’t know how this course feels. Getting my DUB 12 with the good grab would be good.

“I think a good Olympics for me would just be being proud of the run that I’ve managed.”

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