Britain’s Ski Freestyle Champion, 16-year-old Katie Summerhayes carried the Olympic torch through her home town Sheffield today.   She is one of Britain’s medal hopefuls – not for London 2012 but for the X Games and for next Winter Olympics in Sochi in Russia in 2014.  

Katie has already had a similar honour bestowed upon here – she was the flag-bearer for Team GB at the Winter Youth Olympic Games in Innsbruck, last January, as we reported from the Austrian city here. 

On hearing she had been selected as a torch-bearer for London, she told reporters: “Everyone at school is so hyped about the Olympics.  Everywhere I turn I see something about Team GB and it’s an amazing feeling just to be a part of it.” 

Each of the 8,000 torch-bearers for London 2012 were nominated by people in the local community.  Katie’s nomination story goes like this:

“I would like to nominate Katie to carry the Olympic torch because she has shown that with a lot of effort and hard work she has made a great mark in her chosen sport of Freestyle Skiing. Katie just loves the sport of skiing and has gone from strength to strength by enjoying what she does. From the humble beginnings of an artificial slope at Sheffield to the mountains of Europe and America she always skis with a smile on her face.”

“Her talent and hard work has allowed her to ski with the world’s best and challenge them, which for a young girl from Sheffield not blessed with the training facilities (or mountains) of other athlete’s is a great story. What is even better is that after skiing against the world’s best she returns to school with no one knowing her to be any different.”

“Katie has marked this season with an incredible ranking of 5th in the World on the AFP Tour site and has been chosen to represent GB at the Youth Winter Olympics in Austria 2012. All dreams come true for this 15 year old skier. Katie always skis at every training camp run by Pat Sharples, here all the younger female athlete’s see her in action and see her as a role model, someone to aspire to be like! Katie has shown that with dedication, drive and enjoyment any one could strive to be the best.”

Here’s a short clip of Katie doing her ski tricks last season…

 

To see which other British snowsports athletes are involved in the Olympic torch processions, see our earlier report here.