Australian skier Abi Harrigan competes with leg fracture to realise Olympic dream at Beijing Winter Olympic Games

Taking a glance at Abi Harrigan's scores in her Olympic freeski slopestyle debut — where she finished 26th out of 26 riders — and you could be forgiven for being slightly underwhelmed.

Scores of 16.10 on her first run and a 26.31 on her second — for reference, Estonia's Kelly Sildaru top-scored with 86.15 — are far from a fair reflection on what Harrigan is capable of performing.

But that would be ignoring the glaring asterisk that should be scrawled on that scoresheet.

The 19-year-old from Jindabyne was skiing though the pain of a fractured fibula.

Harrigan fractured her right lower leg — just above the boot line — three weeks ago while training in Livigno, Italy when a fellow skier crashed into her side.

«I was devastated,» she said of her thoughts immediately after finding out she had fractured the smaller of the two bones below her knee.

It took a precautionary X-ray to reveal the damage after Harrigan complained of soreness following the injury.

«At the time we found out, I thought that was it, I was going to go home,» she said.

However, Harrigan was determined to achieve her goal of competing at an Winter Olympic Games.

With the help of the Australian medical staff, she got herself into a position to compete.

«When I found out I was coming [to the Olympics] I was pretty excited,» Harrigan said.

Harrigan was forced to take painkillers and an anaesthetic to numb the area in order to get through the pain. She also wore a heat-moulded plate to keep the injury stable.

Even then, competing with a broken leg is far from ideal.

«It's not the worst bone to break, but it's still a broken bone,» Harrigan said.

«A little crash in training didn't help.

»On the last jump, there was [a bit of pain], it's a pretty heavy-impact jump.

«It's