Kirsty Muir
Was at the peak of her career when everything suddenly changed. This gifted Scottish freestyle skier, competing in slopestyle and Big Air events, achieved two World Cup podium finishes during the initial part of the 2023-24 season and seemed poised for her most successful year yet.
One of those podium finishes occurred at the Big Air event in Copper Mountain, USA, in December 2023. She secured the bronze medal; however, the 19-year-old athlete was dealing with a persistent issue in her knee. Upon returning home, an MRI showed that she had actually torn her anterior cruciate ligament.
ACL
) and chronic meniscus damage. After spending over a year on the sidelines, which included surgeries for both the knee and an existing shoulder injury, he recovered.
Her comeback in January was “emotionally charged,” the Aberdeen-born individual shares with us.
The Independent
, yet it seemed like she had never been away, as she secured qualification for both finals in her initial competition upon returning.
Aspen
, Colorado.
Fortunately, since you’re wearing ski goggles, nobody noticed me shedding a few tears when I first returned!” she explains. “Yet, it was entirely due to joy. I was ecstatic, feeling rather overwhelmed.
There were numerous elements at play: I hadn’t caught up with my friends for ages, missed the thrill and anxiety of competing. Just preparing for competitions can be quite stressful, which kept me preoccupied mentally.
However, after being sidelined for 14 months, both she and her team refrained from pushing for her comeback. She mentions that the season has “100 per cent” surpassed her expectations.
It mostly came down to seeing how things would go for me,” she explains about her strategy for this campaign. “Obviously, we were aware that this year was focused on Olympic qualifications, which was another item on our list, aiming to secure the necessary results toward that goal.
“When my ACL injury occurred, I genuinely felt that I had never been better. The experience definitely came as a surprise. However, coming back from it and participating in several events has made everything seem worthwhile.”
Just two months into her return, she reached yet another milestone by securing her first-ever World Cup victory with a gold medal in slopestyle.
Tignes
In France, victory served as a “confidence booster,” and she further explains that what mattered most was, “‘You can always doubt yourself during rehabilitation, wondering if you’ll ever return to your previous strength.’ That win dispelled all those uncertainties for me. I genuinely felt fully restored and prepared to compete once more.”
She established the target score during the qualification round, and when she stood in the starting gate for her final attempt—being the last competitor to race—she was already aware that she had secured the win. “It felt absolutely wild; I embraced my physiotherapist and coach right from the start, and even managed to circle the track in celebration, something not everyone gets to experience! It was surreal, with an enormous grin plastered across my face.”
She mentions that although things went smoothly during the competitive part, she needed an encouraging chat with Freeski’s head coach, Jamie Matthew, to get into the right mindset for making it to the finals.
I experienced the worst training session prior to my qualifier; I couldn’t manage to complete even one run I desired,” she recalls. “You typically have between 45 minutes to an hour, which might amount to just four, five, or six runs – hardly enough for warming up. When I reached the starting gate for the qualifiers, I felt extremely anxious, but Jamie reassured me saying, ‘there’s no need to worry because if you don’t secure a successful run, it doesn’t matter.’
He succeeded in giving me a fresh start. Everything seemed to fall into place, and I wasn’t overthinking at all, which turned out to be ideal!
Despite being just 20 years old, Muir is an experienced contender who claimed three senior national championships when she was only 13. She represented Great Britain as their youngest participant at the age of 17 in the 2022 Winter Olympics, describing it as “unreal.” At those games, Muir advanced to both the slopestyle and big air finals, placing eighth and fifth accordingly, and holds ambitions of securing a medal spot this season.
I’m thrilled because I believe I’ll truly soak up the Olympic atmosphere this time,” she remarks. “It will surely be quite distinct, yet I’ll still carry some memories and lessons from the previous event.
Muir first appeared on the World Cup circuit at age 15 and remembers, “I was quite shy and introverted, keeping mostly to myself. It was around the time of the Beijing Olympics and shortly thereafter that I began to come out of my shell more.”
I often felt like I was living in my own world, dealing with a lot of stress. It wasn’t terrible, but I didn’t fully appreciate the competitions as much as I should have. Skiing isn’t solely about competing for me anymore; it’s also about having fun and doing exactly what I love.
So, I’m aiming for a healthy equilibrium where I maintain some self-imposed pressure without losing sight of my competitive nature. Since I tend to be quite tough on myself during competitions, I also make an effort to stay relaxed and savor the experience. It seems that when I concentrate more on the slopes, my skiing improves.
Muir notes that the challenges she faced during her prolonged time off have actually made her return even more robust. Unlike most athletes, whose ACL injuries are often identified immediately due to a distinct pop, hers went unnoticed until she underwent an MRI for her pre-existing shoulder condition.
“You’ve heard about the noise it creates, and people instantly feel distressed, but for me, it seems like this could have occurred at any moment or developed slowly over time due to the nature of our sport,” explains the 20-year-old.
We engage in extensive strength training, and we attributed the initial lack of detection somewhat to my muscles compensating for it. I returned home and had an MRI as a precautionary measure, but without it, I would have kept playing throughout the season despite doing all this gym work.
It was certainly challenging to undergo two rounds of rehabilitation. Your body expends a significant amount of energy to heal, and since they were separated, it felt like the recovery process took longer than necessary.
During her extensive rehabilitation period, Muir attempted to “discover my identity beyond skiing” and embraced the unusual break this afforded her. It turned out that she developed a passion for mountain biking, an activity that also helped facilitate her comeback into skiing. “I could hop on the bicycle much earlier than getting back onto skies, plus it mimicked the sensation and rhythm experienced when riding down hills on a ski slope using mountain bike ramps. This remains one of my favorite activities whenever I’m at home,” she explained.
The journey towards complete recovery was challenging, yet she remained unwavering about her commitment to the sport.
“I never reached a point where I thought, ‘I won’t return to skiing.’ However, you constantly wonder, ‘Will my knee be robust enough? Will I regain my usual self?’ These thoughts come up frequently. During rehabilitation, it feels odd—sometimes it doesn’t even seem like my own knee.”
But I was always certain that I would return to skiing regardless of anything else, as it is the activity I hold dearest. The longing for skiing drives you to continually strive to get back into it. Without genuine passion for the sport, you wouldn’t possess the drive needed to persevere.
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