'Small gains' - how Ormerod relearned walking before jumping

LEEDS, England : Many athletes have overcome a great deal to fulfill their Olympic dreams but British snowboarder Katie Ormerod had to go back to the very beginning to get herself in the best possible shape for next month's Beijing Winter Games.

Two days before the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics Ormerod was in prime condition and had all her jumps and tricks rehearsed to a tee to be ready to go for gold only for disaster to strike - an accident that reshaped the next two years of her life.

The Yorkshire rider came off a rail too soon on a practice run and split her heel bone in half, with medics taking two hours to cut her out of her boot. Her Olympic dream was over, with more serious repercussions causing even more worry.

"It was a good four months before I could actually walk again," Ormerod, 24, told Reuters in an interview. "I was in a wheelchair and on crutches for a very long time.

"Going into my first Olympics in Pyeongchang, I was so excited. It was a dream come true and to miss out in the way I did definitely wasn't what anyone could have expected.

"I had to work extremely hard to get back from that - seven operations, a full year of rehab, and 18 months before actually getting back into competition. I just had to be so resilient, even to be able to walk again after an injury like that."

Just being able to return to the snow after such a painful injury is no easy task, but Ormerod came back with a bang.

In 2020, she became the first Briton to win a slopestyle World Cup title and a much-coveted snowboarding Crystal Globe – a prestigious International Ski Federation award for the athlete who earns the most points during the season.

Such success made the previous two years of hell all the more worthwhile.

"I knew that every