The former speed-skater has endured heartbreak on and off the ice and, after attempting to take her own life last April, she is now trying to summon the resilience that usually defines her
“This doesn’t feel different to a death,” Elise Christie says as she tries to build a new world without speed skating, the sport that has consumed half her life. Christie, a three-time world champion who also won 10 European titles, announced her retirement last month after a year which nearly took her life. Christie had been hoping to compete in her fourth Winter Olympics next month but, feeling let down by the sport and struggling with injury and her mental health, she says: “It’s like you’ve lost the most important thing in your life and the thing that you gave everything up for.”
Christie sits on a sofa at home in Nottingham and rubs her face gently. Earlier this evening she had broken the news to me, in a revelation she has not discussed publicly before, that loss and trauma drove her into a depression where she attempted to take her own life last April. We have also discussed how she is now trying to summon the resilience that usually defines her.
