Katie Summerhayes living Winter Olympics dream again as she targets gold on slopes for third time

The skiing career of Katie Summerhayes began on the dry slopes of her home city, encompasses countless air miles, Alpine backdrops, a shared Olympic experience with her younger sister and in Beijing over the coming days, a third crack at glory on the biggest stage of all.

Even at 26, she is not ruling out going on after these Winter Olympics.

Not bad for a girl brought up in Sheffield, where snow falls about four times a year.

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“It’s pretty crazy, even to go to the Olympics just once is amazing, to get to do it twice and then three times is surreal,” Summerhayes told The Yorkshire Post before heading out to China.

FLYING HIGH: Katie Summerhayes competes during the Freestyle Skiing at the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympics. Picture: Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)FLYING HIGH: Katie Summerhayes competes during the Freestyle Skiing at the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympics. Picture: Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)
FLYING HIGH: Katie Summerhayes competes during the Freestyle Skiing at the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympics. Picture: Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)

“Everyone says to me it’s pretty cool that you’ve achieved that and it takes me a while to realise that they’re right, it is pretty special.”

Little could she have known this would be her path when she first headed to Sheffield’s dry ski slopes as an eight-year-old.

It was there that she met James Woods, four years her senior, and already the magnet for the city’s like-minded free spirits, who spent weekends and school holidays on the rails and the half-pipes of the dry ski slopes.

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“To think we’re still going to the Olympics some 20 years later is pretty crazy. Everyone was just so happy to be there, a real community feeling,” says Summerhayes, who would later let her younger sister Molly tag along.

Sheffield's Katie Summerhayes, pictured during the Freestyle Skiing Ladies' Ski Slopestyle final at the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympic Games . Picture: David Ramos/Getty ImagesSheffield's Katie Summerhayes, pictured during the Freestyle Skiing Ladies' Ski Slopestyle final at the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympic Games . Picture: David Ramos/Getty Images
Sheffield's Katie Summerhayes, pictured during the Freestyle Skiing Ladies' Ski Slopestyle final at the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympic Games . Picture: David Ramos/Getty Images

“Everyone just wanted to push each other and make each other do tricks that we probably wouldn’t have done, but it was all to make each other better.

“I just remember everyone loving it, there was nobody who didn’t want to be there, it was a very encouraging environment.”

They became known in British ski sport circles as the ‘Fridge Kids’ because they learned on dry slopes, but it proved no hindrance as they quickly established themselves on the European and global skiing scene.

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In Beijing, Summerhayes and Woods compete in their third Olympic Games, a testament to how they have both matched and on some occasions beaten competitors from the more traditional winter sports nations.

LVING THE DREAM: Katie Summerhayes, pictured at Genting Snow Park in Zhangjakou earlier this week. Picture courtesy of Sam Mellish/Team GB.LVING THE DREAM: Katie Summerhayes, pictured at Genting Snow Park in Zhangjakou earlier this week. Picture courtesy of Sam Mellish/Team GB.
LVING THE DREAM: Katie Summerhayes, pictured at Genting Snow Park in Zhangjakou earlier this week. Picture courtesy of Sam Mellish/Team GB.

Summerhayes reached the final of the freestyle skiing slopestyle event in both Sochi and PyeongChang, finishing seventh on each occasion.

“To make it to a third Olympics is up there as a career highlight,” said Summerhayes, who was a world championship silver medalist back in 2015.

“Making it to PyeongChang, I went into it with an ankle injury and didn’t train for two months, was pretty big for me. But to be able to do what I have done for the last 10 years is pretty amazing, especially being from Sheffield with no snow, that’s something I’ll always be proud of, where I’ve come from and where I’ve got to.”

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Her love for skiing, her enjoyment of the community she is part of, are two of the reasons she cites for her longevity.

PREPARATIONS: Katie Summerhayes takes a training run at the Toyota US Grand Prix at Mammoth Mountain California in January. Picture: Maddie Meyer/Getty ImagesPREPARATIONS: Katie Summerhayes takes a training run at the Toyota US Grand Prix at Mammoth Mountain California in January. Picture: Maddie Meyer/Getty Images
PREPARATIONS: Katie Summerhayes takes a training run at the Toyota US Grand Prix at Mammoth Mountain California in January. Picture: Maddie Meyer/Getty Images

For a number of years she had Molly for company, including in PyeongChang, but where Katie was always supported by UK Sport funding through the National Lottery, Molly had to work part-time jobs to compete around the world. She worked in McDonalds and Greggs before retiring after 2018, and is now a policewoman. Katie knows how fortunate she has been.

“I’m pretty lucky that I can do this full-time due to the National Lottery funding, and I don’t have to work,” she says.

“Without it I wouldn’t be where I am now. Not just for me but for the rest of the team, it helps dreams come true.

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“I’m determined, I’m a hard worker, but at the end of the day I just love skiing.”

Summerhayes is confident in her form and already feeling comfortable in her surroundings.

Beijing might not be a destination that screams Olympic sports but with temperatures at minus-20 degrees and the slopestyle course built on man-made snow, she might just have an advantage on athletes from wintery destinations.

“Man-made snow tends to be a lot firmer, especially with it being -20 degrees,” says Summerhayes, who combines training at the snowdome in Manchester and also out in the Alps during the season.

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“It’s kind of what we’re used to in the snowdomes, icy and really firm. It doesn’t make that much of a difference, obviously it’s more like what we’re used to, but at the snowdome we can only do rails and it’s only three metres high.”

As well as slopestyle next Sunday and Monday (February 13 and 14), Summerhayes will compete in Big Air this coming Monday and Tuesday.

“It’s the first Olympics for skiing Big Air, but a format we’ve been competing at for ever,” says Summerhayes of a discipline that sees skiers slide down a 60-foot ramp that tilts up at the end and shoots them into the sky, allowing them to complete gravity-defying tricks to impress the judges.

“If I had to pick one it would be slopestyle, that will be my main goal.

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“I’ve got to treat these Olympics like any other competition.

“I know what it’s like to have all these distractions. Because it’s my third time doing it I can go in, try and get the job done and not get distracted by everything else.”

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