Freestyle skiing: Kirsty Muir on her Winter Olympics goal

Kirsty Muir is a Winter Youth Olympics silver medallist

Freestyle skier Kirsty Muir says she has been "surprised" by her stunning start to the year.

The Scot, 16, recently claimed her first World Cup medal by winning silver in the ski slopestyle in Colorado.

Just a few days earlier she took part in her first senior World Championships at the same venue, where she was the only British female to make the final, finishing sixth.

"I have definitely surprised myself a wee bit," she told BBC Scotland.

"I didn't have any expectations, I was excited because it was my first trip to America, so I was just having a laugh and enjoying it all and I am just really happy with how I skied.

"It makes me believe in myself and know I can do the tricks and things, it just makes it a lot easier in a sense."

Muir, who is a fifth year pupil at Bucksburn Academy in Aberdeen, may be the new kid on the block at senior level, but there is plenty of evidence to suggest she can live up to the big reputation she earned in the youth ranks.

A two-time world junior medallist and Winter Youth Olympic silver medallist, she has been described as a "one in a generation athlete" by fellow Scot and former Olympic snowboarder Lesley McKenna.

And she already appears to be well on the way to securing a place at next year's Winter Olympics in Beijing.

"Right now we are in the qualification period for it," said Muir.

"From my results I am doing okay to qualify, I really would love to go, I have lots of goals and that is definitely one of them.

"I am not the best timetabler but on the free time, days off, bad weather days, that is when I have to do the school work and the school are being really helpful, they are extending deadlines and different things for me which is really helpful when I am doing competitions."