THE first time that Nicole Ritchie attempted skiing, she screamed so hard that her instructor had to call her parents to collect her. In her defence though, she was only three and a half years old and her attitude to the sport has changed markedly in the intervening 18 years since that family holiday in Colorado.

Since that somewhat dubious start in the sport, Ritchie has become one of Britain’s brightest slalom and grand slalom prospects and 2016 has seen the 21 year-old take a significant step forward in her development; earlier this year, Ritchie was selected to become a member of the Delancey British Alpine Senior Squad, a promotion that the Scot admits was hugely significant.

“It was a really big deal for me to be promoted to the senior squad,” the Glaswegian says. “That had been my goal for the past few years so it’s great to achieve it – especially when it’s such a strong squad. So now I’m in, I guess I’ll need to make some new goals.”

However, Ritchie is insistent that she will not be resting on her laurels, despite reaching the top squad.

“The under-21 and under-18 team is very strong just now and there’s a number of good skiers coming up so that pushes me on because I want to stay ahead of them,” she says.

“That motivates me because I want to remain in the team and compete with the best in Britain and then obviously compete with the rest of the world.”

Ritchie’s progress is all the more impressive considering that she has made this progress with minimal outside support and in a sport which is as financially demanding as skiing, this has been no easy feat.

However, her results in recent years, which include becoming multiple Scottish champion and finishing in third place in this year’s British Championships, attracted the attention of a sponsor, QTS, which has allowed her to base herself near the ski resort of Meribel in the French Alps – a move which has been vital in her development.

“It’s just a completely different world compared to Glasgow,” she says. “We’re so close to some great skiing locations and so we’ve basically got the skiing world on our doorstep.

“And the group of girls I train with are of a really high standard – they would get into the British team easily so it’s a great training environment.”

It may sound like the life of luxury but there are, admits Ritchie, arduous aspects to being a professional skier.

She rarely gets the opportunity to return home to Glasgow, particularly during the season, but however homesick she may get, she just reminds herself of the bigger picture.

“It can be hard being away from home for so long but I know that I’m working towards a dream and so this is what I need to do,” she says.

“I know that I need to make sacrifices and if that means leaving my family and friends then that’s what I have to do. But there’s also really good parts of being based in France and I really enjoy it.”

Ritchie specialises in slalom and grand slalom and with split seconds making a significant different to final race placings, she admits that it is as much of a mental game as anything else.

A serious crash two years ago while racing in Super-G put her off the faster events and she admits that incident can still play on her mind.

“I went off a jump, crashed, landed on my coccyx and broke my coccyx bone,” she says.

“It was very sore and I had a concussion too so I had to sit in a dark room for a week. I couldn’t ski at all for two and a half weeks and that put me off the speed events.

“It does sometimes play with my head so that can be hard but I know that I just need to think about success and that helps clear out any negative thoughts. And my coach always tells me just to have fun so that’s what I focus on in the start gate and it seems to work for me.”

Ritchie’s 2016/2017 season is just gearing up – she has already competed in a handful of early season races in Sweden and France but the real racing will start in the new year. Ritchie’s primary goal, however, is to become an Olympian.

She will be only 22 when the Pyeongchang Olympics roll around in just 14 months’ time and so it may be the 2022 Games which are a more realistic target. Despite the Beijing Winter Olympics being a whopping six years away, Ritchie is aware how quickly time can go and she admits that qualification for those Olympics has already crept into her mind.

As hard as it can be though, she is adamant that she will not put excessive pressure on herself quite this early.

“Beijing 2022 is definitely the ultimate Olympic goal,” she says.

“It is in the back of my mind but at the moment, I’m just focusing on racing.”