Winter Olympics: Katie Ormerod turns her attention to Beijing 2022 after injury ends Pyeongchang dream
The 20-year-old, ranked second in the World Cup big air rankings, injured herself falling off a rail last week, had surgery and has been in a hospital bed in Seoul ever since
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Your support makes all the difference.Katie Ormerod, one of Britain’s best Olympic medal hopes, never got the chance to compete when she broke her heel in training for the women’s slopestyle before the Games had started.
The 20-year-old, ranked second in the World Cup big air rankings, injured herself falling off a rail last week, had surgery and has been in a hospital bed in Seoul ever since.
Ormerod is due to fly home for further treatment on Friday.
“I just want to get home. I've been in hospital a week now. I was just worried about flying too soon because of the pain,” Ormerod said in a press release.
“I’m looking forward to getting back to my family. It was quite scary being in this hospital as it wasn't like any one I had ever been to before. But they've all been really friendly and looked after me.”
Ormerod described the moment she suffered the injury, not helped by the hard snow at Phoenix Snow Park.
“I landed almost before the knuckle of the jump. It was fully flat so almost like landing on concrete really,” said Ormerod.
“As soon as I hit the floor I knew it was a really bad injury and I was in excruciating pain. I’ve never felt pain like it. I tried to move out of the way of the other snowboarders but I just couldn’t and had to shout for help.
Ormerod will need further surgery but she is looking forward to returning to action and aiming for the Beijing Games.
“I’ve already started looking towards 2022 now. At these Games I really wanted to come here and do my best and hopefully bring back a medal.
“So I'm just gutted that I wasn't able to do that. I'll still keep training even harder now when I get back on to snow.”
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