In celebration of International Women’s Day, we’re proud to announce our favourite, most inspirational female athlete that we’ve noticed over the past year. So, without further ado, it’s time to award British snowboarder Katie Ormerod with the title.
Hailing from Yorkshire, the greatest county in the land (not that we’re biased or anything…) Katie first set her sights on serious snow and slopes on a holiday to France when she was aged 3. Following in the footsteps of her cousin and Olympic snowboarder Jamie Nicholls, Katie returned to to the dry slops of Halifax with a natural appetite for success.
Utilising her gymnastic background, Katie recognised her physical advantage over her competitors and used this to her advantage. Like all British snow-sport athletes, Katie struggled with balancing school and work around snowboarding. Because of this, she narrowly missed qualifying for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia.
However, two years later, this disappointment was overturned as she won bronze in the Big Air competition at the World Cup in Pyeongchang. The following year, 2017, was an even better year for Katie, as she picked up another bronze at the Winter X-Games in Aspen, a silver in the Air + Style Big Air competition at Innsbruck and a gold medal at the World Cup Big Air competition in Moscow. Quite a year, to say the least.
Katie managed to make it into the Team GB selection for the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang. Her dream of making it to compete in the Olympics was about to become reality. However, a serious case of bad luck struck Katie not only once, but twice.
On her first day of slopestyle training in South Korea, she sustained a fractured wrist, with the intention of competing later on that week. But the next day, Katie was ruled out of the Games altogether after suffering a severe fractured heel in two places in training. Disappointed just doesn’t cut it. Her strong form coming into the Olympics made Katie a shoe-in for a podium finish in the Games, but it just wasn’t meant to be.
Her determined and fearless nature will hopefully see Katie recover from the injury and accompanying surgery, so that she will hit the heights of success which certainly lies ahead of her. We wish you all the best in your recovery, Katie!
Watch as @OrmerodKatie takes you from the dry slopes in Yorkshire to conquering mountains in her new @GoPro film #WhiteRose pic.twitter.com/7r2PEbZBZk
— Red Bull UK (@RedBullUK) January 30, 2018
You can follow Katie on Twitter here.