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Winter Olympics: Skier Charlie Guest goes from quitting to Beijing

Charlie GuestGetty Images

Charlie Guest is due to compete in the women's slalom in Beijing

By Thomas Duncan
BBC Scotland in Beijing

24th Winter Olympic Games

Hosts: Beijing, China Dates: 4-20 February

Coverage: Watch live on BBC TV, BBC iPlayer, BBC Red Button and online; listen on BBC Radio 5 Live and BBC Sounds; live text and highlights on BBC Sport website and app

Six weeks out from the Winter Olympics four years ago, Charlie Guest was struggling to walk.

Recurring problems from breaking her back in 2014 were wreaking havoc on her body, morale was at rock bottom, and her entire focus was just making it to the starting gate in Pyeongchang to make her Olympic debut.

"At the start of the second slalom run I was like: 'Get me out of here, this is horrible.' I'd never felt the pressure, disappointment, shame anything like I did in the starting gate on that second run."

Guest finished 33rd, a result that marked the start of a slide which led to her giving up on skiing at the end of that year. While on her own in Austria doing rehab, she phoned her coach in the United States to say: "I can't do this any more."

Now, the Scot is in the form of her life as she prepares to compete at her second Games in Beijing, having also managed to get to grips with an auto-immune condition, which she was diagnosed with in 2019.

"It's a cool journey to look back on," Guest tells BBC Scotland. "Even if it wasn't so fun in the moment and there were times when I thought about sacking it all in.

"But we've made it and we're definitely getting the rewards now so I'm just super proud of everyone."

'It was the lowest I've been'

The roots of Guest's journey from near-retirement to Olympics begin with the back injury she suffered in 2014, breaking four vertebrae after going off-piste during a training run 11 weeks before she was due to make her World Championship debut.

Remarkably she was back in seven weeks and made the Worlds, but the effects of the injury would niggle away at her in spells for the next four years, culminating in a miserable end to 2018.

"Personal life was terrible, coaching and professional side of things wasn't going well. My back was not happy," Guest explains.

"It was probably one of the lowest points I've ever been in. To the point I was out in Austria doing rehab by myself and I just phoned my coach and I was like: 'The car is in the airport car park in Munich, I've paid for it for a month, I am done.'"

She went home to Scotland distraught and tried to come to with the end of her career.

"I was in tears for days and just in bed the whole time. My sister would knock on the door and be like: 'I think you should maybe go outside today.'"

Luckily, GB Snowsports facilitated her going to a physical rehabilitation clinic in London, which proved a major turning point.

"I walked in there like, okay I'll do this rehab and at least I'll be healthy and I can continue being active and not be hurting. I walked in the first day and the physio was like: 'So how are you? How's your life going">