WATCH: Join GB’s new snowsports star Emily Rothney on world class slopestyle training run
Join Carrbridge’s new world champion Emily Rothney on a slopestyle training run and check out the sheer scale of the obstacles she has to take on.
The 16-year-old from Carrbridge wrote her place in GB sporting history last Saturday at the 17th European Youth Winter Olympic Festival in Bakuriani in Georgia.
The pressure was really on the medal hopeful after two falls in the slopestyle competition earlier in the competition week - but boy did she nail her second chance of glory in the snowboard big air.
Emily landed a strong first jump of 73.75 but took a tumble in her second meaning that everything rested on her last jump - with two counting - and what a jump.
It was the best of the contest with the judges giving her 83.00 points for a final gold medal winning total of 156.75.
“I really wanted to come home with the medal. I had to land it for everyone back home watching,” Emily told the Strathy.
“I knew that Granny (Anne Dickson) was up so close to the TV that she couldn’t get any closer!
“I just tried to keep positive, remember that I’d done all the practice and all the training. I knew I could do the tricks.
“Dad (Craig) just said to put the bad ones behind us. I knew it was going to be tough but I knew that I had what I needed to bring the medal home.”
Her proud father said: “There was a lot of pressure on that last run…. It’s how you deal with it that matters - and she did just that.
“Emily kept her very best for last and it’s great that she really showed her mettle.”
The teen is now targetting making the GB snowboard squad for the Milano Cortina Olympics in February next year - which will include her friend and one of the world’s very best slopestyle and big air riders Mia Brooks (17).
