‘Oh my god’: Olympian’s brutal reaction after horror accident

A British Olympian has recalled the moment she knew her career was over after a high-adrenaline move ended up going horribly wrong.

Aimee Fuller has transitioned into a new career. Photo: Getty Images/Instagram.

Spiralling 12m into the air as thousands of fans cheered, snowboarder Aimee Fuller knew disaster was about to strike.

A gust of wind had caught her and seconds later in the 2018 Winter Olympics slopestyle final she crashed head and chest-first into the hard-packed snow, shattering her medal hopes.

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Speaking to The Sun, the Brit recalled: “My first thought was, ‘Oh my god, do I still have my boobs?’ It was brutal. I knew how lucky I was to still be in one piece.”

Four years on, Fuller has swapped the perilous pastime for the safety of the TV studio as she fronts BBC coverage of the 2022 Winter Olympics alongside established hosts Clare Balding and JJ Chalmers.

As the opening ceremony took place in Beijing on Friday night, Fuller revealed how that horrific crash persuaded her to finally hang up her board after a 13-year career.

Now 30, Fuller contested the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, then the Games four years later in PyeongChang, South Korea, in the slopestyle event, where boarders perform daredevil tricks over jumps, rails and other obstacles.

She adds of her 2018 crash: “When I hit the snow I kind of knew that was it. I thought, ‘I’m going to be on TV instead’.

“I had been doing lots of TV training — anything I could to get good at it — and I never competed again after that Olympics.

“I didn’t want to put my parents through the stress of it anymore.

“Even though they are always super supportive, for anyone it’s difficult watching your child doing something so dangerous.”

Aimee Fuller is used to life in the spotlight. (Photo by Stuart C. Wilson/Getty Images)

Snowboarder Aimee Fuller. Photo by Mark Thompson/Getty Images.

Fuller dated Love Island UK doctor Alex George in 2018 and she knows being in the spotlight for her career in TV is a whole new challenge.

With the Winter Games going on through the night for viewers in England, Fuller is torn over how to juggle her own viewing with her presenting duties from a studio in Manchester in the north of the country.

“I’ll stay up and watch it for as long as my eyes can stay awake,” she says.

“It’s a tough one because I have to look fresh-faced the next day, so I might have to settle for catching up when I wake up.

“It’s going to sound crazy but there are similarities with live TV and snowboarding. There’s a real buzz, a rush, something could go wrong and everything would end in catastrophe.

“You have to be mentally agile to react to a changing environment in snowboarding and broadcasting and that is what got me hooked.

“Like standing at the top of the slope, nothing prepares you for it. In the studio, the lights go down and the red light goes on and you’re off.

“The only difference with snowboarding is that it’s usually a different colour light which means go.”

Boarding is not for the faint-hearted. Picture: AAP Image/Paul Miller.

Fuller says it is a “dream” to be presenting on TV but as a child, her life was all about skiing.

Growing up in Kent, snow was always a rarity so she started out on a dry slope in Bromley.

She recalls: “From the age of four I went to the slope every weekend to ski. I also did motocross from the age of six to eight and then I became the elephant of the gymnastics class from 10 to 12. Combine all those things and I was perfect for a snowboarder.

“I visited my cousins in Canada and snowboarded when I was eight and that was it, I was hooked.”

Things then got more exciting as she set her course for the thrills and spills of slopestyle boarding.

A TV stint at the 2014 Winter Olympics was also memorable. Fuller was a co-commentator as her fellow slopestyle boarder Jenny Jones won bronze to claim Britain’s first ever medal on snow.

“I was 100 per cent spurred on by that experience,” Fuller said. “One of my best friends won a medal, it was one of the best things I’d ever seen.”

After quitting snowboarding, Fuller took “any job I could” to learn the presenting gig, got advice from British television personalities and video blogged relentlessly.

Fuller believes this could be the most competitive Winter Games yet.

“One snowboarder I spoke to is scared because the competition is outstanding and the things people are performing are absurd. It will amazing viewing,” she says.

“I’m just as excited being on the other side of it and not being the one throwing myself off a jump the size of a small house.”

This article first appeared on The Sun and was reproduced with permission