ELISE Christie has always been one of the most open and honest athletes in elite sport when it comes to discussing her frailties, with lack of confidence being one such difficulty. But she is happy to report that, after setting a world record and securing the top spot in the short track speed skating world rankings, that has all changed and she now, finally, truly believes in herself.

It is no surprise that the 26-year-old, who is originally from Livingston, is feeling good and she goes into the European Championships – which begin in Heerenveen in the Netherlands on Friday – as the heavy favourite to defend her four titles from 2016.

The Scot has been at the top end of her sport for several years but even by her own high standards, the first half of her 2016/17 season has been phenomenal. Within the space of a few months, Christie has picked up an astonishing five World Cup gold medals, with three coming in her favoured 500 metre event and two in the 1000m, which ensured the Scot ended 2016 top of the 500m world rankings and second in the 1000m rankings.

But perhaps Christie’s most eye-catching achievement was breaking the 500m world record last month. As an athlete who has admitted struggling with self-belief, her recent successes have done her the world of good.

“It’s been a really good start to the season and I’ve never, ever felt this confident in my career,” she said. “It’s nice to actually believe in yourself. Most athletes struggle with self-belief and the last few months have definitely boosted mine a lot. Now, I feel like I have the capability to win every race. Of course that doesn’t mean I’m going to but I believe I can which means I’m more likely to stick to my guns in races. So I’m pretty happy about that.”

Despite Christie’s struggles with her confidence, there can be no denying she’s a tough cookie. She famously went into the 2014 Winter Olympics with a realistic chance of winning medals in all three of her events but a combination of disqualifications and crashes saw her return home empty-handed. It was a blow that weaker athletes might never have recovered from but Christie is made of tougher stuff, although she admits her Olympic experience did affect her race mentality for some time.

“When I went into the Olympics in 2014, I had this attitude of gold or nothing and it ended up being nothing unfortunately,” she says. “After that, I got scared of having that attitude because it had gone so badly in Sochi so I started going into races with a safer attitude of just trying to pick up medals, not going for the win.”

However, she gave herself a talking to at the start of this season and decided the mindset that had seen her pick up numerous medals but few wins was not acceptable.

“I thought everything through and realised that I probably don’t have loads longer left in this sport so I might as well go for it,” she says. “I’d already achieved a lot so I felt like this was a change that was necessary.

“I said to myself that I was going to go out and either win or lose. I wouldn’t just settle for second or third and at the moment, it’s paying off really nicely. I was obviously hoping I’d win a lot of races but it never normally happens like that in this sport so I’ve been pretty surprised that things have worked out so well for me.”

Being a perfectionist though, Christie admits that even in her world record-breaking skate she found many faults with her performance, and despite climbing to the top of the world rankings, her motivation has not dimmed. In fact, knowing she is now the skater everyone is trying to overhaul only drives her on.

“Getting to the top definitely hasn’t made me lose any motivation,” she says. “I definitely don’t feel like I’ve achieved everything I want to, I think I’ll always feel like I can do more. It’s confidence boosting being at the top but it’s scary at the same time because I know people are going to be analysing everything I do and trying to figure out how to beat me, so I need to continue improving to keep surprising people.”

The European Championships next weekend are another chance for the Scot to add to her medal collection but it is the World Championships in March which remain her primary goal for 2017. And with the Winter Olympics just 14 months away, redemption for her Sochi experience is on the horizon.

There is much work to be done before Christie pulls on Team GB Olympic kit again but finishing last year with a World Cup gold medal at the 2018 Olympic venue in Pyeongchang has left her in a good place. Christie’s 2016 was hugely successful but with her new-found confidence, 2017 looks like it could be even better.

To find out more about the GB short track team visit www.gbshorttrack.org.uk