The motto “never give up” would seem a little trite coming from most athletes, but freestyle skier Leonie Gerken Schofield has built her career living by those words. The 24-year-old’s body is covered in scars from surgeons’ scalpels: she has broken her back and suffered a herniated disc, undergone two knee operations and dislocated her shoulder three times which would eventually require surgery. The nadir came just before Christmas, only two months before the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, when she crashed while training for a competition in the Alps. The physical injuries were relatively minor in Gerken Schofield’s world, but the psychological impact when competing days later was enormous.
“After my crash I had a check-up with a Team GB doctor to make sure I was OK – I took a hit on my shoulder and head – but it was all clear,” she tells The Independent. “Then I had a chat with my sports psychologist, I told her I wasn’t feeling it when I was at the top. The cameras, the conditions, the waiting all got to me. My legs started to shake, I was a complete nervous wreck.”
