Summerhayes is a ‘natural’ – Sharples

Summerhayes, 19, goes in the women’s skiing slopestyle with the qualifying at 6am British time and the final scheduled for 9am.

Her fellow Sheffield Ski Village graduate, James Woods, contests the men’s event on Thursday.

“James has not just got natural talent, he’s a workhorse, he puts his heart and soul into everything,” said Sharples, who is also the coach of Sheffield skiing halfpipe hopeful James Machon and Settle’s Emma Lonsdale.

“But Katie is the most natural skier I’ve seen.”

Sharples was born in Bradford, learned to ski on the dry slopes of Halifax and Harrogate, and represented the White Rose in the British Championships as a teenager.

He could have gone to the Nagano Olympics of 1998 as a competitor in the moguls but ‘blew out’ his knee in the lead-up.

His career was over, but it opened the door onto coaching just as freeskiing was rising to prominence.

“I liked the freestyle aspect of it instantly. You can express yourself a lot more, there’s not as many rules to abide by,” said Sharples.

He set up freeski schools in France in the summer and Swizterland in the winter. Soon he had a plethora of young enthusiasts heading out to join him in the Alps. Now he has a team with a lot of expectation on their shoulders.

“My job is to make sure our guys are 100 per cent ready in Sochi,” he said.

“But I’m certainly not putting medals around people’s necks. I don’t want to place that pressure on their shoulders.”