Natasha McKay: British champion ice skater retires aged 28
- Published
Competing at a home grand prix was "the last thing" on Natasha McKay's "bucket list"
Six-time British figure skating champion Natasha McKay has retired from the sport aged 28, saying, "I can't achieve anything else".
The Scot has also competed at multiple world and European championships.
And she achieved her dream of competing at a Winter Olympics - at last year's Games in Beijing.
"I don't need to go any more," McKay told BBC Scotland. "So I just decided that this was the right time and it was the best decision for me."
It means she will hang up her competitive skates 21 years after taking up the sport.
"The only thing I would have wanted to do again was go back to the Olympics," McKay explained. "Anything else in the middle wasn't as big a deal. That would have been it for me and that was a big factor as well - do you want to push yourself to go that next four years?
"I am getting older, I am 28 years old now. As a figure skating athlete, we put so much impact into our knees, our bodies, we have to weigh up that decision, obviously.
"I need to move on with my life. I am engaged, I am getting married next year, so I also had that to think about."
Having originally planned to retire after the Olympics, where she did not qualify for the free skate, McKay opted to continue for another year, finishing 23rd at 2022 World Championships.
It also meant she was able to compete at a grand prix event on home soil when the MK John Wilson Trophy was held in Sheffield, describing it at the time as "the last thing on my skating bucket list".
However, McKay will remain involved - as a full-time coach in her native Dundee.
"As I was going through and I was still competing, you don't realise what you have done and what you have achieved until you take a little step back and you are like, 'oh my god, I have gone to the Olympics, I am six-times British champion'," she said.
"You don't realise all of that until one of the little kids comes up to you and they go, 'you are a six-times British champion, I want to be like you, I want to go to the Olympics like you' - that means a lot to me, to be inspiring the next generation coming through."