British teenager Kirsty Muir branded the standard in the women’s freeski big air final as “insane” after finishing an inspiring fifth on her Winter Olympics debut.
Muir, 17, is the youngest member of the British Winter Olympics team in China, and went into the last of her three runs knowing she needed a big score to try and finish among the medals. In pushing for the podium, Muir attempted a trick she had not performed before and a crash left her out of the top three.
“I went for a switch misty 10 in the last jump which I’ve never tried before,” she said. “I just wanted to go for it. I’m just so happy I went and tried it.”
Muir eventually scored 169.00 points behind China’s US-born Eileen Gu, who won gold on 188.25. The silver medal went to France’s Tess Ledeux, with the Swiss skier Mathilde Gremaud taking the bronze.
The event, like Muir, was making its first Olympic appearance, and when asked to sum up her performance afterwards, she said: “I’m so happy right now honestly, the level was insane. I couldn’t have hoped to have skied better today and I’m so proud of all the girls.”
Muir had landed a rare dub 12 trick on her opening jump. “Getting to the final,” she said, “I knew I’d be happiest if I really went for it. I’ve landed the [dub 12] trick before, but I tried it with a different grab which I’ve only landed in competition once before, and that was definitely the best I’ve ever done it.”
The Aberdeen-born teenager, who previously won the silver medal in the sport at the Lausanne 2020 Winter Youth Olympic Games, had said in a social media post on Monday that qualifying in the top 12 to reach the final was “a dream come true”.
Muir will now go on to compete in the women’s slopestyle competition on Sunday. She told the BBC that after that, it will be back to education for her, saying: “I’ve got a bit of studying to catch up on for sure. I’m focused on my next event, and then it’s back to school.”
