A snowboarder who was told she may never walk again after a life-threatening crash left her feeling like a ‘bag of bones’ is back on the slopes preparing for next year’s Winter Olympics.
Snowsport freestyle snowboarder Maisie Hill, 24, from Cheltenham, UK, suffered severe injuries in January 2023 while training in Switzerland.
Crashing at extreme speeds into a ‘wall of ice’ while practising a routine rail trick, Maisie said she was almost killed by the amount of blood she lost from a lacerated liver.
She was transported by helicopter to Gaubunden Hospital in Chur, Switzerland, where she said she was told she may never walk again. She said the impact also punctured a lung, caused a major brain bleed and broke two vertebrae and four ribs.
However, through sheer determination and a ‘life-changing’ grant from the Olympic Solidarity programme, within nine months Maisie was back on the slopes doing what she loves.
She hopes to qualify for the Milano Cortina Olympic Winter Games in February 2026.
“As I lay on the ground after my crash, I felt like I was a bag of bones that someone had picked it up and was jangling,” Maisie said.
“I remember the doctor listing all the injuries I had. It was horrible how many there were, it just went on and on. I was crying, wishing they’d stop talking.
“In my first season competing again (2023-24), I was very scared and was losing confidence in myself. However, I find that smiling every time I get back to the top of the slope helps me perform, reminding me how lucky I am and that I love snowboarding.”
Maisie was introduced to snowboarding by her father aged eight on the hill behind their house in Cheltenham. When she was 10, she and her father moved to Morzine in the French Alps.
“I didn’t love snowboarding at first,” she said. “But my dad always said I would be really good at it. I owe so much to his belief in me.”
By the time she was 16, Maisie said she was excelling in freestyle snowboarding and was invited by GB Snowsport to Laax in Switzerland to join their youth programme.
Maisie moved there alone, renting a flat away from the slopes where it was cheaper, walking 20 minutes to a bus each morning.
When she turned 18, however, she did not make the selection for the British World Cup squad. However, she knew that hard work and pure determination would get her into the team eventually.
She spent the summer of 2021 in Switzerland snowboarding each day on the glacier. And in 2022, aged 21, she qualified to compete for Britain at her first World Cup, where she came seventh.
Maisie said the following months were the happiest in her life, as she progressed rapidly and was loving every minute of snowboarding.
In January 2023, she had just returned from a World Cup in Austria and was preparing for the next competition in Laax, Switzerland.
“It was a foggy day and I was tired,” she explained.
“I was just doing one last run before the tournament the following day. I don’t know how, but I was going extremely fast and I slipped off a rail. I slammed into an ice wall.”
Maisie knew instantly that everything had changed. She was airlifted to Gaubunden Hospital where a surgery was performed. She then moved back to Cheltenham with her mother. Team Great Britain provided physio training and slowly she regained her strength, though it was not easy.
“They’d cut open my stomach, and my abs must have stored all my trauma because the first few times I tried to do a sit-up, I cried so emotionally,” she recalled.
That summer in 2023, she said she received an email from the Olympic Solidarity programme, the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) global development initiative, saying she had been selected for a grant, after being nominated by GB Snowsport.
“Suddenly I thought, ‘I’m going to do this!’”
The programme offers athletes from around the world a sum of money every four months leading up to the Olympics.
In October 2023, Maisie said she was able to go to New Zealand with her team. She said she was so excited by the prospect of snowboarding again that on her first run, she went so fast her coach told her to slow down.
Less than a year after her life-threatening crash, she was competing at World Cups again.
However, she soon found that her performances were getting worse, that she was losing confidence and was scared.
She began working with a sports psychologist, appreciating that there was a lot of mental trauma hindering her performance.
“When I’d have a bad run, I’d be angry with myself,” she said.
“But I found this method, that every time I get back to the top, I find some reason to smile. When I’m smiling, I’m the best version of myself.”
After coming fifth at an Austrian World Cup in March, Maisie said she is on track to qualify for the Milano Cortina Winter Olympics next February.
She hopes her smile and determination will take her there.
She continued: “I remember my family watching a tournament on TV when I was younger and they said that I was the only one smiling.
“Doing it reminds me to make the most of my time and not waste it, and it reminds me that I just love snowboarding. It really works.”
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