Born in the small town of Brancepeth in County Durham, Emily Sarsfield is Britain’s top female ski-cross athlete.
An extremely sporty child, Emily Sarsfield began skiing at the age of three on family holidays to the mountains. She then continued her skiing journey on Silksworth ski slope in Sunderland, beginning to ski competitively at the age of 12. By 13, she had been chosen to ski for England.
Starting out in Alpine Racing, it was soon suggested that she should try the up and coming sport of ski-cross, which she soon found suited her perfectly. Sarsfield graduated from Loughborough University in 2005 after placing 6th in her slopestyle debut at the World University Games,
Since graduating, she has been a firm part of the FIS Ski Cross World Cup circuit and at the forefront of British slopestyle with 8 national titles and a Top 12 World placing. In 2010 Emily created British Skiing history by becoming the first British Female Skier to win a Skiing Europa Cup event.
Unfortunately, Sarsfield has suffered a few serious injuries over the course of her career, which unfortunately prevented her from attending the 2010 Vancouver Olympics. She also controversially missed out on the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympic Games. . However, she is incredibly focused to get to PyeongChang 2018 and achieve her dream of breaking into the global Top 10. She is definitely on the way there, having regularly finished in the top 15 on the World Cup circuit since her return in 2016.
Often having to provide the funding for her training and competition herself, she has undertaken many additional jobs and projects along the way, which she impressively juggles with her intense training schedule. This dedication shows that she is definitely one to watch for PyeongChang 2018.
Read about how Emily is preparing in her latest blog post here.
