A season ending injury to Australia’s top female Alpine skier Greta Small has renewed her determination to make a second Olympic Winter Games in PyeongChang in February next year.
The 21 year-old suffered a crash last January which resulted in the 2014 Sochi Olympian rupturing her ACL in her left knee. Despite the setback, Small remains upbeat about her selection chances for a Games that would feel like something of a homecoming.
“I’m very familiar with PyeongChang because I’ve competed there a number of times plus my father Boyd (and coach) has worked in Korea for the past ten to twelve years,” Small said.
“The slopes are really good – definitely challenging, that’s for sure. I know what I’m in for.”
It won’t only be the slopes challenging Small this coming season. The January crash required surgery to her left knee for the third time in two years, making the window for Olympic qualification later this year all that much narrower.
“I did my ACL and it’s a six to twelve-month recovery, but it’s going well so far. I’m looking to get onto snow in Australia in July or August, return to full training in September and compete in December.”
“Qualification is the tricky part, but I have no doubts in my mind that I will be in PyeongChang competing,” she said.
Originally from Western Australia, Small sports an impressive career CV for someone so young. She finished an impressive 15th in the Super Combined on Olympic debut and was also Australian Flagbearer at the inaugural Winter Youth Olympic Games in Innsbruck, Austria back in 2012.
Small bases her training from Canberra at the Australian Institute of Sport.
– Olympic Winter Institute of Australia
