Winter Olympics: Molly Summerhayes on 'surreal' experience of competing in PyeongChang

Molly Summerhayes found herself in a state of shock after stomping down what she described as her best skiing display in the women's Olympic halfpipe competition.
Molly Summerhayes in action at the Winter Olympics in PyeongChangMolly Summerhayes in action at the Winter Olympics in PyeongChang
Molly Summerhayes in action at the Winter Olympics in PyeongChang

To say the Sheffield freestyle skier's journey to PyeongChang had been a bit of a rollercoaster would be an understatement.

World junior halfpipe champion in March 2015, Summerhayes suffered a serious anterior cruciate ligament injury the following January.

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After having to spending nearly a year undertaking rehab she was then not considered good enough to receive lottery funding, instead turning to working flipping burgers at McDonalds to pay her way.

But her struggles were worth it on Monday as the 20-year-old made her Olympic Games debut in South Korea, laying down runs of 60.80 and 66.00 at the Phoenix Snow Park.

It saw her finish 17th overall, not enough to reach the final as one of the top 12 qualifiers but for Summerhayes, the experience still marked somewhat of a personal victory.

“I can't believe I got to compete at an Olympics, I'm still in a bit of shock,” she said.

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“I'm really happy with the way I skied, it's the best I've ever skied. I'm just speechless. I'm so proud of what I achieved.

“Those runs were more than what I wanted to do. I originally hadn't planned to put the left seven trick in at the bottom.

“When I was here at the test event a year ago I was training it and I kept falling. That was the last time I tried it.

“I really want to have it in my run so I thought I would just go for it and see what happened. I landed it in practice so I thought I would put it in and see what happened."

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Summerhayes had to wait ten days before getting to make her Games bow but she has not been short of distractions, including watching sister Katie in the freestyle skiing slopestyle final.

“I've really enjoyed having my sister here,” she added.” My mum and dad unfortunately couldn't make it out this time.

"So having Katie there has been great. She's only watched me ski pipe a handful of times too and then I was also able to support her.

“You have expectations of what the Olympics are going to be like. But it's better. I just think it's so surreal.”

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