Teenage skier competing in Beijing wins prestigious youth award

A 17-year-old Scottish skier, currently in Beijing to compete in the Winter Olympics, has won a prestigious youth award.

Kirsty Muir, from Aberdeen, has been crowned the eighth winner of the Scottish Youth Award for Excellence in Mountain Culture for her freestyle skiing.

She said she was honoured to be this year’s recipient.

“I hope I can inspire people to get out into their local areas and give sports a go,” the young athlete said.

Elite freestyle skier Kirsty Muir, 17. Handout

Muir has been described as a “one in a generation athlete” by former Olympic snowboarder Lesley McKenna and is being touted as a strong Team GB medal contender at the Winter Olympics in Beijing.

She has been noted for big air, a sport when skiers/snowboarders slide down a high ramp that curls up at the end and shoot themselves into the sky while doing tricks and twists.

Muir also performs slopestyle, which involves tricks and jumps on a sloping course with multiple ramps and obstacles, and halfpipe – in which competitors perform a series of tricks while going down a pipe.

Her extraordinary rise to the top of the international freestyle skiing circuit,

She started on the dry slopes of Aberdeen Snowsports Centre at nearly four-years-old and went on to win a memorable maiden slopestyle World Cup medal in Aspen, Colorado at 16, leading her to the top of the international freestyle skiing circuit.

She won silver in the freeski big air competition at the 2020 Winter Youth Olympic Games in Lausanne, Switzerland – a moment considered the biggest breakthrough in her career so far.

Lydia Rohmer, principal and chief executive at West Highland College UHI, which sponsors the youth mountain award, said: “We are delighted that this year’s recipient is so very clearly a young person passionate about achieving her dreams.

“Kirsty is committed and driven to overcome any challenges that come her way to reach the top in her sport.

“These qualities of resilience and determination are what we endeavour to instil in all our students, as well as a keen desire to share their knowledge and expertise by teaching others, and we clearly see these qualities in Kirsty too.

“We wish to send our congratulations to Kirsty and wish her every success in her future career.”