Dundee figure skater Natasha McKay put on a brave showing on her debut at the Winter Olympics in Beijing.
The 27-year-old stumbled early on but recovered well to complete her short programme routine.
She was awarded a score of 52.54 by the judges, with a one point deduction for her stumble.
In her routine, McKay’s planned elements saw her start with a triple loop, double toe loop moving into a triple Salchow.
She slipped upon landing but quickly bounced back on to her skates.
She then performed a double axel before a camel spin before showing off her skate-work with a step sequence.
McKay closed her performance with a flying sit spin before ending with a change foot combination spin.
An unfortunate mistake today, but great fight afterwards by @NatashaaMckay. A credit to herself and @TeamGB. Proud of her as always and now officially an Olympian. Well done 👏 ❤xxx pic.twitter.com/bo7BB0OEZx
— Simon Briggs (@s1briggs) February 15, 2022
The 27-year-old’s score put her into sixth position.
Although nearly 5,000 miles away from home, McKay maintained a firm link to the City of Discovery by sporting an outfit by Dundee designer Jodi Easson.
The top 25 out of the 30 competitors will go on to qualify for the next stage.
Controversy
Prior to the action, the event was much-talked about for all the wrong reasons.
Medal-favourite Kamila Valieva was controversially allowed to participate after being involved in a doping scandal.
The 15-year-old was found to have taken the banned heart medication trimetazidine following a test at the Russian National Championships on Christmas Day.
However, she argued that the incident was a ‘mix up’ after claiming she had taken her grandfather’s medication by accident.
Russian skater Valieva was one of the last athletes to perform but will not be allowed to progress to the next stage, should she earn enough points.
Career built up to Olympics moment
McKay previously said that she had “worked my whole career to get to this point“.
Juggling two jobs, McKay regularly trains at 5am at the Dundee Ice Arena with husband-and-wife coaching team Simon and Debi Briggs.
A huge credit to all of our Dundee team, to Dundee city and to GBR.
Tash, you are a super person and a wonderful athlete who once as a little girl had a dream of skating at the Olympic Games. That dream is about to come true and all I can say is go & enjoy every single second xx pic.twitter.com/2ML5YP8OxP— Simon Briggs (@s1briggs) February 14, 2022
She secured her place at this year’s Olympics after scoring 153.46 at the 2021 World Championships back in March.
Prior to the Olympics, the Dunonian’s most recent major competition was the European Figure Skating Championships in January where she recorded her best-ever result – with a score of 161.74.
Who is Natasha McKay? Profile of Dundee skater bidding for Winter Olympics glory
