Winter Olympics: Heartbroken Ormerod will bounce back

Katie Ormerod laid bare her heartbreak after she was ruled out of the Olympics on the eve of the Games, writes James Toney in PyeongChang.

The 20-year old snowboarder was considered one of Team GB’s best medal hopes in PyeongChang, following a succession of podiums at World Cup level.

But two broken bones in the space of 24 hours means she will watch Friday’s opening ceremony from hospital after undergoing surgery on a fractured heel.

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“After dreaming of competing at the Olympics for years, I got there and received the most bad luck I’ve ever had,” she said.

“I broke my wrist but was determined to compete, but then I severely broke my heel into two pieces, absolutely gutted.”

Ormerod, the youngest girl to land a double backflip on a snowboard, was a medal contender in both the slopestyle and big air events and was due to make her Games debut on Sunday.

But in her short career she has not had the best luck, which perhaps goes with the territory of a sport that pushes boundaries and defies gravity. She missed out on the last Games after injuries curtailed her qualifying season.

And she was ruled out of last year’s World Championships after fracturing a vertebra in her back in pre-competition training.

However, she’s been backed to bounce back by five-time Olympic medalist Dame Katherine Grainger.
Grainger won three silvers before finally claiming rowing gold at London 2012 and now chairs elite funding agency UK Sport, who have set Team GB a stiff target of between five and ten medals for their £28 million investment.

“Only in time will it sink in what she’s missed out on here,” she said.

“She’s much younger than me and has had more injuries already than I had in my entire career.

“If you handle these things right it can make you a better athlete, it becomes part of your character and you can be better for it. I know she will get past this and come back more enthused in four years time.

“She has always come back stronger from these setbacks in the past and I’m sure she will again.”

Meanwhile, Team GB officials have welcomed the ruling to uphold the International Olympic Committee’s decision not to invite 32 Russians linked to doping in Sochi four years ago.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport turned down the appeal by the athletes, who included Elena Nikitina, one of Lizzy Yarnold’s main rivals in the defence of her Olympic skeleton title.

“It is disappointing we are talking about this on the eve of the games,” said British Olympic Association chairman Sir Hugh Robertson.

“But the decision is reassuring. We want our athletes to compete against the best in the world and we want them to do that against clean athletes. We just want to get on and concentrate on the sport and not worry about doping.”

• Watch the opening ceremony live on Eurosport 1 and Eurosport Player at 10.30am. Don’t miss a moment of the Olympic Winter Games on Eurosport and Eurosport Player. Go to www.Eurosport.co.uk