Charlie Guest could well be less than two months away from making her first appearance at the Winter Olympics but such is the hectic state her schedule, she has barely even had time to think about the prospect of potentially making her Games debut in Pyeongchang.

The 24 year-old alpine skier from Perth is racing multiple times a week at the moment, with Christmas giving her only a brief respite before she is back on the road for a World Cup race in Austria on Thursday. However, the busy schedule is suiting Guest, with the first few months of the season seeing her pick up a first-place finish in an FIS race in Finland, as well as a number of impressive World Cup results which has taken her one step closer to Olympic qualification. “I’m feeling really good – it’s been a good start to the season and I’ve got some results that I’m really happy with in both slalom and giant slalom,” she said. “It’s gone well and that’s been a huge confidence boost – that was my first Olympic qualifying result in giant slalom so I’ll need another one to get to the Olympics but it’s definitely a step in the right direction. In slalom, I know I am fast and I had my first-ever top-30 split in the World Cup last month so that was encouraging.”

However, she refuses to let her thoughts drift towards selection for Team GB, with her long-term progress providing a better focus. “Selection for the Games doesn’t happen until the end of January so it’s still quite a while away," she said. "So, for me, the Olympics is plan A but I try not to think too much about it at the moment – until I get the confirmation that I’m going, I’m trying to put it out my head because I’ve got a lot of races between now and then and I’m trying to concentrate on them. I think it’s a good thing that I have so much on because it gives me a real focus – for me to make the step up to the next level as a skier, I really need to be making top-30 in World Cups so while the Olympic Games is obviously massive, I need to be focusing on pushing on past the Olympics, whatever happens.”

Guest’s impressive results in giant slalom have surprised even her considering her travails of the past few years. Three years ago, Guest was skiing down a giant slalom course at around 30mph when she lost control and fell. She tumbled off the course into the forest, and hit a boulder. She fractured vertebrae in her back, which put her out if the sport completely for several months.

However, she has fought her way back to the top of her sport in impressive style but it is only this season that she has felt comfortable returning to the giant slalom. “I’ve not skied giant slalom properly since the season I broke my back but this summer, I had no pain so we thought that we’d really push on with it," she said. "So my results have really surprised me. And my body is feeling good – I still have some pain but I’ll always have that so I just need to manage it and keep it under control. I’m completely fine mentally about it too – I don’t have any fears about it anymore.”

Following her World Cup race next week, Guest will remain on the road for the majority of the next few months. While such regular racing would be tiring for some, Guest relishes the packed timetable and in fact, believes that having so many races back-to-back helps recover from any disappointing performances. “It’s a lot of racing and that is tiring but on the other hand, it is good that it’s like that because you get into a routine and that’s the routine I’ve been in since I was 17 years old," she said. "When you’re on the race tour, you see the same people and your good friends are there so it’s really enjoyable. And if you have a bad day, you know that you have another race the next week so it helps you to reset really quickly and get ready for the next race because you don’t have time to dwell on things.”

Guest may have established herself as one of Britain’s top skiing prospects but she is still the unenviable position of having to fund much of her training and competition programme herself. And with skiing most certainly not a cheap sport, the financial burden creates a considerable pressure, although there has been significant progress on that front in recent months. “I still have to pay for a lot of things myself – we’re almost all paying a lot of money towards the programme and while that’s tough, it is less money that we would have to pay if we were doing it on our own," she said. "But I’ve recently managed to secure a sponsor - Quinn Estates – and that’s been brilliant because it takes a bit of the pressure off but it’s also great to think that someone believes in me and that’s been a huge confidence boost. So everything is moving forward and I’m feeling really good about next year.”