Sutherland para-athlete Hope Gordon's performance at Winter Games affected by warm-up fall
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By Will Jennings in Beijing
HISTORY-MAKER Hope Gordon blamed a mentally crushing fall in the warm-up for her below-par Paralympic performance.
Gordon, from Rogart, became the first woman to represent Britain as a Nordic skier at the Games on Wednesday* but could only finish 17th in cross-country qualifying.
The 27-year-old, who is also a star para canoeist, only started skiing a matter of months ago and remains one of the junior competitors on the power-packed international circuit.
She’s still building confidence on the snow and admits an accident before taking to the start line did little to help her cause.
Gordon said: “This morning I had quite a bad fall in the warm-up, which wasn’t great physically or psychologically.
“It definitely took a big knock on my confidence. I don’t have a huge amount of confidence at this point in the sport so given everything that happened this morning, I’m happy to get through it in one pieces.
“They’ve changed the course slightly since I was on it previously – it’s just the technical aspect of that corner, and I’m not very good at the technical aspect given this is only week nine on snow.
“It affected me quite a lot – just because of where I’m at with the sport, the technical side of going round corners, I’m not very strong at.
“It was definitely a bit harder today – I had to go into every corner as slow as I could which feels a bit wrong when you’re trying to go round as fast as you can, but safe is faster than lying on the ground, which I was earlier.
“I took a bit of a hit there but I’m happy I got round it. It hampered it a wee bit but I’m not going to look at that - it is what it is and I’ve just got to put it in the back of my mind.”
The Beijing Games kicked off last weekend but Gordon had to wait until Wednesday to make her Paralympic bow.
British Nordic skiing has snowballed in depth over the last four years since Scott Meenagh became the first British athlete to represent ParalympicsGB in the sport for 20 years, with the Cumbernauld star now joined by Gordon, Steve Thomas, Steve Arnold and Callum Deboys in Beijing.
All five have failed to fire in punishing Zhangjiakou conditions but Gordon continues to blaze a trail.
She hopes the visibility of her achievement can capture the hearts of the nation and inspire more British women to pick up a pair of skis.
“It’s amazing – becoming the first female was something I didn’t actually realise myself until not that long ago, but it’s an honour to have that to my name and make a little piece of history,” added Gordon, one of over 1,000 athletes able to train full-time, access to the world’s best coaches and benefit from pioneering technology, science and medical support thanks to vital National Lottery funding.
“It’s cool – but I need to make sure I’m not the last. It’s a hard sport to do in Britain as we don’t have the snow – but when there’s a will, there’s a way, and hopefully there will be more to come.”
No one does more to support our Olympic and Paralympic athletes than National Lottery players, who raise more than £30 million each week for good causes including grassroots and elite sport. Discover the positive impact playing the National Lottery has at www.lotterygoodcauses.org.uk and get involved by using the hashtag: #TNLAthletes
* The time in China is eight hours ahead of the UK.
