Elise Christie will wait until Tuesday morning before making a potentially glory-or-bust decision to compete in the 1,000m after injuring her right ankle in a dramatic crash which led to her being taken to hospital.
However, there appeared to be encouraging signs on Sunday as the speed skater tweeted a picture of herself on an exercise bike with the message “trying hard to turn this around”. British Olympic officials have confirmed that Christie has soft tissue damage – and not a broken bone as initially feared – and insist that the 27-year-old has no mental scars despite her tears after another second high-speed smash at these Winter Olympics.
Britain’s chef de mission, Mike Hay, said: “She wants to make it but it might not be her decision at the end of the day. It will be bit of a fight against time, but nothing is broken. And there must be some chance she can make it or they wouldn’t be saying we can wait until Tuesday to decide.”
Christie has faced criticism for her gung-ho skating style, following her collision with the Chinese skater Li Jinyu in the 1500m semi-finals and a fall in the 500m final. There have also been concerns for her outlook given her disasters on the rink in Pyeongchang followed three disqualifications in the Sochi Winter Olympics four years ago. But Hay insisted that Christie is mentally robust enough to come back from those setbacks in the 1,000m, if she is passed fit. “We’ve got a programme put together to give her the best opportunity but it’s very much in the balance. If she’s able to skate she will, I don’t think it’s a problem for her mentally.”
Hay’s view was backed up by Britain’s skeleton gold medallist Lizzy Yarnold, who said that the whole British team was behind Christie after her latest heartbreak. “Each athlete has their team around them that works so well with them day in day out,” Yarnold said. “She’s a mature and experienced athlete, multiple world champion so doesn’t need anyone else telling her. She knows she can perform so I guess the whole team is behind her. Every single athlete is behind her. We’re still humans. I’ve seen that enough this year.”
Hay also insisted that Team GB had further chances to get to five medals at these Games, which would be their best performance, despite the frustration of seeing James Woods just miss out on a medal in the ski slopestyle on Sunday morning.
“Woodsy is very frustrated, he had it in him to win a medal and to lose by such a small margin is pretty galling,” he said. “It’s just very tough to come fourth in an Olympics.
“But we’ve got opportunities left, Billy Morgan and Dave Ryding have both got chances. Curling isn’t looking fantastic at the moment but it’s a long round robin and Eve Muirhead is still in there with a chance. I don’t want to tempt fate with Elise, so I’ll leave that one alone.”
