Team GB freestyle skier Zoe Atkin is combining her Stanford University studies in symbolic systems with elite sport as she prepares for the Milano Cortina Winter Olympics. The 23-year-old world champion, who studies how the brain processes fear, will face China's Eileen Gu in the ski halfpipe event, where athletes launch themselves 15 feet above a 22-foot wall of ice.
Atkin, who won world championship gold last year with her signature alley-oop flat 540 mute trick, acknowledges the inherent dangers of her sport. 'It's a 22-foot wall of ice and we're doing manoeuvres over it,' she says. 'I've definitely always felt fear very acutely. But I train for this and I'm ready.' She works with a sports psychologist and applies her academic knowledge to manage fear as a biological response.
The skier overcame a two-year mental block on her winning trick by spending a fortnight repeatedly falling and hurting herself before finally landing it. 'I would just fall on that trick over again and land on my hip,' she recalls. 'Until I finally landed it and built up the confidence to do it at the world championships.'
Atkin finished ninth at the Beijing 2022 Games, which she described as 'absolutely devastating'. However, she says cultivating an identity outside sport through her studies has improved her performance. Last month, she reinforced her status as a favourite by winning the X-Games, setting up a showdown with Gu for Olympic gold.
