CHARLIE GUEST is a battler, of that there can be little doubt. Despite being only 23 years old, the reigning British slalom champion has faced significant obstacles throughout the course of her skiing career, but she has been adamant that no setback would be devastating enough to prevent her from achieving her dreams on the slopes.

Less than two-and-a-half years ago, Guest broke her back during a training accident – she crashed and landed on a boulder which resulted in a broken spine – but it would take more than that to stop her. 

The Perthshire downhiller returned to the slopes a mere 11 weeks after her horrific injury with the goal of making it to the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang at the forefront of her mind.

However, nothing is straightforward in Guest’s world and she suffered another setback last year when she realised that if she wanted to follow a race programme that she believed gave her the best chance of reaching the 2018 Games, she would have to do it alone, without the help of the British Ski and Snowboarding Association.

Unsurprisingly, striving to reach the top in elite skiing does not come cheap and Guest admits that the financial strain she and her family have been under for the past year has been a significant pressure on her shoulders.

“This season, GB had only one spot in the World Cups which went to anther skier, so if I had gone on to their programme, I could potentially have gone through the entire season without being sent to the races that the team were going to,” she explains. 

“It just wouldn’t have been a cohesive programme and so, as I’m not getting any younger, I don’t have time to waste doing things that aren’t in my best interests. It’s taken a lot of financial sacrifice from my parents and others who support me but I was able to run a programme that I feel is like a world-class performance programme.”

Guest’s gamble paid off. In January, she secured qualification for the 2018 Olympic Games and so long as she can maintain her world ranking between now and then, she will be Korea-bound next February. Achieving the Olympic standard was, Guest admits, a significant achievement. 

“It was a really big thing to get the qualifying standard and especially to get it so early because now I don’t have to think about it,” she said. “When I got the qualification, I felt a real mixture of happiness and relief. I knew that the qualification standard was very achievable so when I got it, it was a real weight lifted off me.”

Almost immediately after Guest secured the all-important Olympic standard though, her bad luck struck again. Another training fall resulted in a broken hand which forced her to miss last month’s World Championships, something that she admits she did not take well. 

“I lost it when I realised I was going to miss the World Championships,” she said. “When it’s something you’ve prepared for for so long, 
to suddenly be told that you can’t go was so disappointing. But the Sportscotland Institute of Sport gave me so much support which was great and that really helped get me sorted as quick as possible.”

Guest’s broken hand means she goes into this week’s Delancey British National Alpine Ski Championships in Tignes, France, attempting to defend her slalom title having had less-than-ideal preparation. Despite her hampered build-up though, she has retained her belief that she can successfully defend her title.

“To be honest, it doesn’t lower my expectations of myself, but if I don’t win, I might not be as disappointed as I normally would be considering my preparation,” she said.

“My main goal is just to ski with a free mind and if I can do that, that’s when I ski faster. It’s been a frustrating time recently with injuries so I’m just going to try to have fun with my skiing and hopefully I can get a couple of good results in the last part of the season.”

As the Winter Olympics edge closer, Guest admits that she is still not certain what her plan for next season is. GB will have a second spot available for slalom skiers at next season’s World Cup races which will, potentially, allow Guest to rejoin the British programme. 

That is, admits Guest, an attractive prospect. “Running my own programme has been a good temporary solution but for the coming years, the way forward is to be part of the team,” she said.

“Doing everything by myself just isn’t sustainable, so I’m in the process of deciding what I’m going to do next. 

“The last year has been tough, so it’ll be good to move forward but to have already qualified for the Olympics is really satisfying – it shows that if you really commit to what you want to do, you can absolutely do it.”