Muir Offers Hope On Slopes For Breakthrough In Beijing

Kirsty Muir waits for her score in the women’s slopestyle final

- James Toney

Kirsty Muir dropped in to another Olympic final with her favourite Arctic Monkeys song ringing in her headphones. And the lyric “The middle of an adventure, such a perfect place to start” never seemed more appropriate.

These have been a tough Games for Team GB; medals have been a bit like the snow – distinctly short in supply. Indeed, with four days of competition to come, the scorers have yet to be troubled, raising the prospect of a first Olympics without a medal in three decades … no pressure then, Bruce Mouat in the men’s curling.

That inquest will start soon enough but there is no doubt that Muir will survive unscathed, as the undisputed breakthrough act of Team GB’s Beijing travellers.

Freestyle skier Muir will be back to school next week but admits she’s learned some big lessons from her debut Olympic experience, as Team GB’s youngest member, aged just 17, followed her fifth place in the Big Air with an eighth in the women’s slopestyle yesterday.