Winter Paralympics: Hester Poole vows ‘redemption arc’ after crash on Games debut

“Some people have glory stories, some people have redemption arcs.”

Hester Poole is going for the latter.

At just 18 years old, the British Para-alpine skier would have been forgiven for feeling a bit down in the dumps after crashing out on her debut at the Winter Paralympics.

But that’s not her style.

After skiing out early on in her first giant slalom run on Thursday, losing her balance and brutally tumbling down the piste as her guide Ali Hall could only watch on, Poole brushed herself down and has already turned her focus to her next race.

“Of course I would have liked to put down a good run for my Paralympic debut,” said Poole, who was born with the rare eye disease Leber congenital amaurosis and has only 5-10% vision.

“But some people come here and have glory stories, get gold straight away and then have to defend that, some people have redemption arcs – so that’s the angle I’m going for now.

“I’ve still got the slalom to come on Saturday, I’m looking forward to it a lot. I’m going to just try and put this out the way and start fresh on Saturday and hopefully put down some good times.”

Poole, from Bath, only found out she would be competing at the Milan-Cortina Games three weeks before it started.

That news came in the same month she was awarded a place to study at Cambridge – a dream she has held since she was eight years old – having combined her A-Level studies with competing on the international stage.