Skier Muir hopes to 'come back even stronger'

Kirsty Muir is nearing a return to competitive action

Winter Olympic freestyle skier Kirsty Muir believes she "can come back even stronger" following her "crazy difficult" recovery from a knee injury, which has sidelined her for almost a year.

The 20-year-old Scot ruptured her anterior cruciate ligament and sustained meniscus damage after crashing during an event in December 2023.

After having surgery for that in January and also going under the knife to repair a historic shoulder injury in March, she was back on skis for the first time in early November during a return snow trip to Ruka in Finland.

"I was so excited I couldn’t even explain to you because it has been 11 months," Muir told BBC Scotland.

"I feel like I am definitely going in the right direction. Just being back on skis makes it really feel like it is real.

"It has been crazy difficult, I have never been off my skis for this length of time ever so it has been really weird, it has taken a lot and I have been very patient. It has just been really different but it has been a learning curve too, I am grateful for it but I am very excited to be back soon."

The Aberdonian was the youngest member of Team GB's squad for the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing where she made the finals in both the women’s slopestyle and women’s big air events.

"I didn’t realise at the start of my journey how much of a hole I was in," she explained. "For the first three months of the rehab I was just like digging and keeping going but then I came out of that and I was like, 'wow, I was really quite sad'.

"So it is quite difficult mentally, just to keep seeing people on social media and online and watching the competitions you were supposed to be at. It is quite difficult but again that is one of the ways I have grown is just understanding that and realising that it wasn’t my time to be at that competition and then the next one I will be at.

"There are so many thoughts that go through your head, like, 'will I get back in general? Will I get back and have a weakness?' So many thoughts and there was a moment in April where my knee just randomly started hurting quite a bit more, that made me think, 'is this even going to fix?'

"But then you just keep pushing through and you give yourself some rest and then once you are back to normal then you can get strength and keep going stronger. Luckily, I had a lot of people around me to help me through it because I don't think you could do it on your own.

"I just thought back to all the competitions that had some crazy feelings after - after Beijing, after the X Games - you have such a crazy feeling of excitement and I was really using that for this rehab."

2026 Winter Olympics 'a huge target'

Getting back on skis is one thing, getting competition ready is another.

But Muir is hoping to return to competitive action in the early part of next year, describing March's World Championships as "a big goal".

An even bigger goal is the 2026 Winter Olympics, which get under way in Italy in 15 months' time.

"It is a huge target and it is definitely a big goal of mine," she said. "I totally believe it is achievable, I just need to get back on the skis, properly get back in the park and then build all my tricks back, then right now it is the qualification period, so I have missed a couple of competitions but there are plenty more competitions for me to do, so I will be good.

"I am really confident I can get back to that level. I also think I can come back even stronger and push for some new tricks."