Wrapped up against the icy blast of a Scottish winter and with her family by her side, little Kirsty Muir was on her first slippery slide towards the Winter Olympics.

On and off piste at Glenshee, on the dry slopes in Aberdeen and at Bearsden and on family holidays to the Alps, the freckle-faced schoolgirl fearlessly threw herself into a sport that is as risky as it graceful.

On Monday, in Team GB colours, the 17-year-old ‘flying Scot’ will tuck her long red hair inside her jacket, climb up a 160ft tall tower, hurtle down a 250ft slope and, while her parents Jim and Kim watch with their hearts in their throats back home in Aberdeen, launch herself off a ramp.

Soaring through the air, she’ll twist and turn through a series of acrobatic moves before – hopefully - touching back down on the hardpacked snow and gliding gracefully to a halt.

For her parents, the thought that something might go wrong – a momentary loss of balance, a distraction, loss of concentration or misjudgement – doesn’t bear thinking about.

“We’ll probably be watching with our hands over our eyes,” says her dad Jim, 60, a company director who helped teach Kirsty to ski by tying a rope around her waist and setting her off down toughest runs on Glenshee with him following behind.

“It’s such a dangerous sport,” he adds.

“Everyone taking part has a chance, and there are so many things that can happen, it can all change in a split second.”

For viewers tuning in to watch the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics coverage, the freeski big air qualifications are a chance to get to grips with a new event – it’s the first time it has featured in the Games.

For athletes, the precious seconds flying in mid-air are spent trying to cram in perfectly executed rotations, spins and flips. The highest scores go to those who display precise control, individual style and, importantly nail the landing.

It is not a sport for the faint of heart – big air comes with the possibility of big falls.

The risks – and the emotional rollercoaster of having seen Kirsty juggle training, school, Covid restrictions and injury – means her parents plan to watch the qualification round and, hopefully, her appearance in the final quietly, at home together.

A few days later, they’ll tune in again to see Kirsty, the youngest member of Team GB, compete against the world’s best in the Games slopestyle event. Another highly risky event, it combines speed and tricks performed over a man-made downhill terrain where even successfully completing a run is no guarantee of success – that’s down to the judges and how impressed they are by the twists, turns and tricks.

While Kirsty has been tipped as having a good chance of a podium place, there are no parties or celebrations planned back home in Aberdeen.

“We will keep it low key, we’ll be watching but it will be just us, going ‘yahoo!’ together,” adds Jim.

There is, however, already cause for celebration: the organisers of the Fort William Mountain Festival today named Kirsty as the eighth recipient of The Scottish Youth Award for Excellence in Mountain Culture.

The award, sponsored by West Highland College UHI, celebrates adventurous young people, the landscapes they choose to explore and the outdoor pursuits in which they excel. The Festival organisers have already confirmed Paralympic hand cyclist Karen Darke will receive its main honour, the Scottish Award for Excellence in Mountain Cultures.

The awards are the highlight of the Festival programme, which runs over five days from Wednesday 16 February at venues in and around Fort William.

Included in this year’s Festival are live talks and presentations by snow patch expert Iain Cameron, and filmmaker, wild swimmer and camper, Calum Maclean.

Described as a "one in a generation athlete" by former Olympic snowboarder Lesley McKenna, Kirsty learned to ski when she was just four years old but quickly found traditional Alpine skiing too boring.

Instead, she had her eye on the ramps and jumps, and by seven was honing her freestyle craft.

It led her to multiple youth competition podiums and a maiden slopestyle World Cup medal in Aspen, Colorado, when she was still just 16.

Since then, she’s successfully combined training at home and at training camps abroad with studying at Bucksburn Academy in Aberdeen, where she’s a straight A student.

When the pandemic hit, she switched her training arrangements from the slopes to Banchory Trampoline Club, where she had to first convince officials that she had the acrobatic and gymnastic skills to use the equipment.

Jim adds: “She’s come a long way in the past year despite all the obstacles of Covid and even Brexit which made it a bit harder to travel.

“She just adapts and gets on with things.

“The last pre-season training camp was meant to give her two weeks of training but Kirsty tested positive for Covid as soon as she arrived in Switzerland.

“She was isolating alone, while outside there was beautiful blue skies and perfect conditions.

“She takes these things in her stride.”

Her schedule can be exhausting: recently she arrived home in Aberdeen after competing in the USA, completed her university applications, completed a series of media interviews and set off for another event within the space of just 48 hours.

While in Beijing she will compete against athletes who have grown up close to some of the world’s top ski resorts, or have parents who have also taken part in elite snowsports.

With no spectators allowed at the Games, Jim and Kim will have to follow events from their livingroom.

He added: “It’s easier for us if we can be there when she’s competing, so if something happens, we’re there.

“However, we’ve been told about the protocols, and if she is injured or has Covid, she’ll go to Chinese facilities.

“We take our lead from Kirsty. She needs to know we are confident in her ability, and that we’ve got her back.

“She trains as hard as she can, she does all the strength and conditioning exercises and she is dedicated. She wears her safety gear, and this is the sport she’s chosen.

“But my heart is in my mouth when she’s competing.

“It’s her against the mountain.”

The Fort William Mountain Festival 2022 begins on Wednesday, February 16. For details go to https://mountainfestival.co.uk