Winter Olympics 2018: Elise Christie in Twitter shutdown after 500m medal agony in order to focus on next chance
British speedskater crashed out of Tuesday's 500m final but still has two more chances to win her first Winter Olympics medal
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Your support makes all the difference.Elise Christie has turned to a social media shutdown in order to focus on her second of three gold medal chances just days after her 2018 Winter Olympics heartbreak in the 500m short-track speedskating.
The British athlete cruised through her 500m heat before coming home in second in her semi-final, leaving the 27-year-old facing a tricky lane draw for the five-woman final.
Starting in the fourth lane, Christie made a poor start and attempted to work her way back into medal contention, only to crash out after contact with Dutchwoman Yara van Kerkhof. Christie protested her innocence afterwards in claiming that she was taken out of the race, but with the officials taking no action against Van Kerkhof, she was left to rue another near-miss.
Christie was disqualified from all three of her short-track events at Sochi 2014, and her path to the Pyeongchang Games has been one based around redemption. With just two more chances to try and win a medal left in South Korea in the form of Saturday’s 1500m and Tuesday’s 1000m races, she has decided to take a step back from social media to fully focus on her task ahead.
“Hey guys I’m going to be a bit quieter over the next few days so I can focus on my preparation!” she wrote on Twitter. “Especially for the 1000m coming up! Thanks so much for all the support it’s overwhelming! I promise to do my best! Sending you guys all my love.”
While she will have hopes of finally securing a medal in Saturday’s 1500m, it will be her favoured 1,000m event next week that the Scot will mainly target for success.
"1,000m is the one I'll really be trying to get for gold in," said Christie. "And I've still got the World Championships to become world champion in the 500m, so there are a lot of chances still."
Speaking after Tuesday’s disappointment, Christie admitted that the disappointment of 500m final was nowhere near as bad as her Sochi experience due to the backlash that she faced from South Korean fans after a collision with Park Seung-hi.
"It was nowhere near as traumatic as Sochi," Christie said. "I didn't come off to thousands of abuse.
"I didn't get a penalty, what happened I couldn't have done anything about it. As frustrating as it is I've got to move forward now."
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