 Hi, I'm Pam Thorburn and I compete in Ski Cross. I'm from Straven. She's near Glasgow and I've been skiing for the last 28 years. I've been skiing for as long as I can remember. My family are mad keen skiers so I basically grew up trying to chase down my brother, my older brother. The first thing I can remember is my dad telling me very quickly that when I fell over he wasn't going to help me get back up. So I had to do it myself or they were going to leave me behind. I think I'm quite competitive in nature and that's totally from my dad. I think because my dad was a karate champion and he always had us doing lots of different sports when we were younger and introduced us to a lot of things. My mom's also very sporty. So I always wanted to compete when I was younger in something, in everything. I loved it when I started competing and skiing so it just kind of rolled on from there, really. I've been injured a lot. I've had 13 surgeries now but I definitely learn each time I'm injured and it's a good way to learn your body and know what's happening and how you're feeling and the older I get, of course, the wiser I'm getting and I can understand that if I'm hurt, what it takes to get back and I think it's kind of given me more of an appreciation for what I'm doing. I've had small injuries and big injuries and sometimes the smaller injuries are the harder ones because they take more out of you, they're mentally tougher and it's really when you don't see an end to it. That's the hardest part, I think, but when you do eventually overcome it, it's the most satisfying for sure. It was always the goal when I was growing up to work my way towards the Olympics. There wasn't one time that I thought I could do it, I kind of always believed that I would get there and I remember the first time that I scored Europa Cup points in Alpine skiing and my Olympic criteria was somewhere near those points and I thought, well, I could get there and the first time I actually made the Olympic criteria, I thought, okay, okay, this is definitely possible and it just kind of rolled on from there. I think everybody that makes it to the Olympics or makes it to that level has a little extra something in the will that they have, you know, the push and drive that they have, of course, because there's a lot of sacrifices, you have to make a lot of sacrifices over the years and if you don't want it badly enough, you're not going to get there for sure. For me, it's been great this year because this is the first year I've had a coach so the things that I've been learning this year are more than probably since I started ski cross as I was out doing it on my own. So it's just kind of taken things to another level with my performance, my confidence and I know that I'm capable enough, it's just going out there and actually doing it.