Anna Turney is a Winter Paralympian, and represented Team GB in alpine skiing at the Vancouver and Sochi Games. While the Games took place, we spoke to Anna about her life as an athlete and how the skills and attributes she learned during her sporting career are helping to support the next generation in her role as an athlete mentor at Dame Kelly Holmes Trust.

My sport was alpine skiing and I competed at two Winter Paralympic Games, Vancouver in 2010 and Sochi in 2014. Incredibly, the Vancouver Games coincided with the fourth anniversary of the accident where I broke my back, so it was an amazing achievement to be there. 

As well as competing in two Paralympic Games, I also won two world cup silver medals and four bronze medals to go alongside the fourth place finish I achieved in Sochi. At the time it was frustrating to finish just outside the medals, but I look back now with a lot of pride about what I achieved in my sporting career. 

Just watching the Games now in Beijing, I’m realising again how amazing it is, the feeling of flying down the mountain is incredible, such a wonderful feeling. I really loved the speed events as they were really liberating and exciting and I’m absolutely loving watching it. The skiing looks amazing but challenging, I think I’ve watched all of it! In skiing, you have to be right on the edge to reap the rewards and there’s a lot of risk involved with many variables you can’t control such as weather, the terrain and your competitors and you’re risking everything. If you crash at 75 miles an hour, you’re potentially risking your life. It's brilliant to see Paralympics GB are doing brilliantly, especially in the snow sports. It's great to see that we have such growing talent, huge respect! 

Skiing is a hugely technical event, and it takes time to master. It teaches you big lessons in learning about failure which is true in all sport but it’s very apparent in skiing! These skills and experiences are crucial in our development, and we can pass that knowledge on to the young people we work with. You fail, you learn, and you move on, and you take those failures forward positively in your life. That’s how you get better, by daring to make mistakes and then understanding how you can learn from them. 

Although I competed in an individual sport, I was part of team and there was no way I could have done it on my own. As an example at the Paralympics I had a ski technician, my coaches, team mates, physio, strength and conditioning etc. We were a small team compared to some of the bigger Alpine nations like Austria so we would join up with smaller teams like New Zealand or the Netherlands and team up with them to train together. Being a part of that team is so important, so choosing the right people to work with and have in your team is crucial and then choosing the right advice to listen to. 

Probably the biggest message I would give to people is just to try things, give them a go! Self-belief is so important. You’ve got to find a way to point your skis down the mountain, sometimes you’ll surprise yourself with what you can achieve, to dare and to believe that you can do it! Learning to believe in yourself is challenging, you have to build yourself up in small steps. You’re not going to go from beginner to Paralympic champion overnight, you’ve got to take it step by step. 

There are a lot of skills you need to compete at an elite level, but there are a lot of skills you need just to get through life especially when things don’t go your way. You need focus, determination, you need to be pretty gritty to get through each day and stick at it as you’re constantly trying to improve and get better. This is the same as what you need in everyday life, they’re hugely transferable skills – you need heaps of courage and self-belief which you can develop. You need to deal with pressure and look after yourself.