I sat down with Eilidh McLeod, a 4th year Geography student and Blues Secretary from Edinburgh, in her Chalet inspired room to talk about her love of sport, mainly skiing and the self determination she needed to bounce back after her major accident in 2010.
How did you get into skiing originally?
My parents were skiers and the sooner they put me on skis the better it was for them to go on holiday, so 3 months old I was on a ski holiday. And the day I essentially stood up and walked I had these wellies on that strapped to plastic skis and I used to stomp around the house. When I started to take skiing more seriously it was me that was doing the pushing, they would give me options and support but who as a kid doesn’t want to go away with friends on holiday.
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How did your skiing career progress after school?
I left school to ski at 16 and I joined the British team, after being selected from the Scottish team. But while I was still at school I participated in the Youth Olympics. Once I was full time I was just chasing these international races around, trying to get my rankings down, I then won the British U18 Overall- skiing, slalom, super G, giant slalom. Whilst I was full time I kept injuring myself, every year I end up in hospital; but when you get injured you come back a fitter, better skier.
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I know vaguely that you badly injured yourself, how did it happen?
My final injury was in 2010 when I was racing at the English Champs in Italy. It was pretty horrific. I’d already hurt my knee the year before and it had metal put in it and while I was skiing I flipped and my skis didn’t come off so my other hkin (right shin) shattered as something had to give. It took the Italian doctors so long to get me off the hill and they wouldn’t give me pain relief until they knew what had happened. In the hospital they had to saw my ski boot off, they then put me through the x-ray and could see how bad it was. The doctors then attached weights to the end of my foot to pull it straight – its called traction. Eventually I was taken back to the UK in my own wee private plane, got to Edinburgh and saw my parents, which was a bit emotional. They gave me physio and I started learning how to walk again, I went in for meeting with the surgeon after and she just told me to find something else to do as I’ll never ski again. That was tough to hear.
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How did you bounce back from the injury?
The experience was character building, from learning to walk again to fixing my breathing. Once I was out of hospital my friends would come and hijack me when my gran fell asleep, they’d take me for ice-cream. They’d pile my chair and crutches into a tiny car and we’d go to Lucas’s in Morningside. At the weekend my cousin would take me to the 6 Nations games, and there’s nothing better than being in a wheelchair in a pub as you can get as drunk as you want and have the best seat in the house. One of the highlights was going the supermarket with mum, which was a total mission but I’d just wheel about and annoy her. It really opened my eyes to what it’s like living with a wheelchair, but I knew I was lucky because I’d be getting out of it- I had hope.
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Would you say your choice of sport reflects who you are?
Yeah I guess, a thrill seeker and a team player. You can’t compete without learning how to be a part of a team, you have to play your part and pull your weight. Nothing really compares to the feeling I get when skiing and I have the mentality wanting to be the best so it was difficult when I was told to find something else to do.
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How important is sport and an active lifestyle to you? Especially being at University.
It’s everything, I don’t want to sound cheesy but sport is more than just exercise. Sport is having a team, a group of friends that you can socialise with and share experiences with. I am, personally, only happy when I feel fit and healthy because I’ve felt what its like at the other end of the spectrum, and its horrendous. It helps me concentrate with uni work, I feel more energised if I’ve been active.
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Since coming back from your injury would you say your outlook on life has changed?
Yeah, I don’t take skiing for granted anymore. It’s crazy how the whole thing all happened; it was one second, one bit of bad snow, a freak accident that changed the direction of my life completely. The reason I started skiing again was that I built up enough muscle to start coaching then felt confident to go on a ski holiday- the doctors didn’t okay this- I just did it. It was a reward for working hard at the gym and after going on the ski holiday I did BUSC in my 2nd year and won then did it again in 3rd year and won. It proved that since I’d got myself fit and strong I could get back out there – all the work was self-motivated. I’m more open to joining new sports now- I’ve just joined crossfit and it’s given me a whole new group of people and it helps let off my competitive steam while being so much fun.
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