Trolling Almost Caused British Olympian To Quit Winter Games

Speed skater Elise Christie forced to delete her Twitter account...

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by Sophie Wilkinson |
Published on

Winter Olympians can put up with a lot of nonsense; Sochi's awful accommodation, cuts, bruises and sprains, g-force, freezing cold weather and, of course, shiny spandex.

But for 23-year-old speed skater Elise Christie, she could barely handle the trolling she's had online - and it got so bad that she almost quit the Winter Games.

After being disqualified for a collision in the 500m final and for not skating over the line in the 1500m, she felt pretty down, and this wasn't helped by the abuse she got online: 'Obviously I spent a few days feeling quite down and struggling psychologically,' she's admitted. 'I came here to train yesterday and found that really difficult, it was quite emotional. I was feeling pretty low, the lowest I have felt in my career.'

But things looked up for her when she realised that the trolls weren't the only people who gave a crap about her performance: 'I was then told about all the good support back home and that really boosted me. I smiled for the first time in a while when I heard that.'

Luckily for Team GB's hopes, Elise didn't quit the Winter Games -she just quit Twitter. And now she's qualified for the quarter-finals of the 1000m short track speed skating, which takes place on this Friday 21st February.

Fingers crossed she shows the trolls what she's made of!

Follow Sophie on Twitter @sophwilkinson

Picture: Getty

This article originally appeared on The Debrief.

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