Ellia Smeding looking to put long-track speed-skating in limelight at Winter Olympics

Ellia Smeding hopes to inspire a new generation of “control freaks” as she prepares to become the first female long-track speed-skater for 42 years to represent Great Britain at an Olympic Games.

The last British long-tracker to grace the Olympic Oval was Craig McNicoll in 1992, and the women go further back with Kim Ferran and Mandy Horsepool at Lake Placid in 1980, where Robin Cousins reigned supreme and Torvill and Dean were inexperienced also-rans.

The 23-year-old Smeding, who will be joined at the Games by her partner Cornelius Kersten, said it never crossed her mind to pursue the more available route into the unpredictable world of short-track, with which the nation is more readily associated.

Smeding said: “I’m a bit of a control freak, and the difference in short-track is you’re racing in a pack, we all know it’s quite prone to crashes and disqualifications, and you just don’t know what’s going to happen.

“You could be in your best shape possible and have the worst luck. With long-track it’s a time-trial. You could still do something silly and get disqualified, but the chances are really low.

“I like that if you skate well and you have a good execution of the race, that means you will put down a really good result.”

Born in England to a British mother and a Dutch father, Smeding moved to Holland at a young age in order to learn the language, and found a natural progression from an initial love of roller-blading onto the ice in a nation that has won a remarkable 42 speed-skating gold medals.

Alongside Kersten, who was born in Haarlem and also has a British mother, the duo funded their quest to reach Beijing by setting up a single-filter coffee business, Brew 22.

She hopes interest in their performances could