Even in her wildest dreams, Kirsty Muir couldn’t have imagined her comeback going quite as smoothly as this.
She was, though, surely due some good fortune.
As a teenager, the Aberdonian was widely recognised as one of the most promising freestyle skiers on the planet.
She became British senior champion at 13, made her World Cup debut at 15, her Olympic debut at 17 and become an X Games medallist at 19.
She had, it seemed, the world at her feet. But elite sport rarely follows the script, which Muir found out to her cost.
Just days before Christmas 2023, the Scot went for a routine scan having suffered from knee pain and the results could not have been more shocking. She was told she’d torn her ACL - one of the most severe injuries in sport, and career-ending for some. Muir was faced with a year off her skis which was, at the time, she admits, almost impossible to process.
“I found out on the 23rd of December '23 that I'd torn my ACL, and there was definitely a few days of not fully acknowledging the news - it was a bit of a shock to the system to find out how serious it was,” she says.
“So I had to let it sink in. But then, by the new year, I was ready to just get on with it. I knew that I needed to think as positively as I could, because if I wasn’t motivated, I wouldn’t be able to do the rehab that was needed.”
Muir threw herself into her recovery - she also underwent a shoulder operation during her time out - and finally, last November, she was ready to set foot on snow once again.
She may not have quite returned to the level of a novice skier, but her first moments back on skis were tentative, to say the least.
It wasn’t long, however, before Muir was back to something resembling her old self.
“For a few months before I was actually allowed, I was absolutely desperate to get back on the snow,” the Red Bull athlete says.
“My first time back on the skis in November was definitely a bit wobbly. I hadn't forgotten completely how to ski, but it certainly wasn't the standard you’d want.
“My coach told me afterwards I was skiing so terribly on that first day back. And I had to just say, yeah, fair comment.
“But even by the end of that first day, I was skiing a lot better. And by the time I was back in the park, in December, it all felt normal again.”
Muir’s return to competition at the start of 2025 came with few expectations, but it quickly became apparent that the 20-year-old had lost none of her competitive instinct during her year on the sidelines.
Even she, though, could not have imagined just how quickly she would return to truly world class form.
Pre-injury, Muir had grabbed a spot on World Cup podiums four times, ensuring she knew her best was good enough to compete with the world’s elite. But given her return to competition was still in its infancy, she headed into last month’s World Cup event in Tignes with little pressure upon her shoulders.
That she ultimately departed France with her first-ever World Cup victory having won the slopestyle event was both a thrilling and heartening moment for the Scot.
“It was pretty crazy to get back into competition and feel the adrenaline again- it was even more of a rush than before, just because it had been so long,” she says.
“Winning a World Cup has been a goal of mine since before I was even in World Cup events so to actually do it is a dream come true for me.
“Coming back from an injury, and I think this is the case for most athletes, there was some doubts about whether I’d be able to get back to the same level I was at before, or push further. So for me, to be able to do better than I've ever done and get the win was a big confidence boost and it proved to myself that I am going to be able to get fully back.”
Muir is currently in the midst of her FIS Freestyle World Championship campaign - she finished sixth in the slopestyle final last week while the Big Air event is this week with qualification today before the final on Saturday.
This World Championships is the final event of the season before Muir heads into a training block and summer 2025 will be considerably different to that of a year ago, during which her injury meant she was mountain biking and spending time with family and friends rather than up a mountain. And so Muir is under no illusions as to how important the next few months are to ensure she heads into the new season in as good shape as possible.
In eleven months, the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics will kick off and after Muir being Team GB’s youngest athlete at Beijing 2022, she will, all going to plan, go into her second Winter Olympics with considerably more expectation upon her shoulders.
However, Muir, whose persona oozes calmness, is refusing to get too hyped-up about the potential for Olympic success next year.
“I definitely already have an eye on the Olympics - I’ve got some things I want to work on in the next year so I can go into Milan with a chance of doing well. I go into every comp wanting to put down the best run I can and obviously the Olympics will be no different," she says.
“Everyone goes into the Olympics hoping for a podium so I just want to focus on doing my best and hopefully that will be enough.”
It’s this laid-back approach that’s likely to serve her well as she continues her ascent to the top of the freestyle skiing ranks.
Find Kirsty Muir's Red Bull athlete page here: https://www.redbull.com/gb-en/athlete/kirsty-muir
