I thought my boobs had gone after horror Winter Olympics smash – I feel safer being a TV presenter, Aimee Fuller says
SPIRALLING 40ft into the air as thousands of fans cheered, snowboarder Aimee Fuller knew that 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.
The Brit action woman says: “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, Aimee 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 gets under way in Beijing today, Aimee reveals how that horrific crash persuaded her to finally hang up her board after a 13-year career.
Aimee, now 30, contested the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, then the games four years later in PyeongChang, South Korea, in the slopestyle event, where boarders turn daredevil tricks over jumps, rails and other obstacles.
Pants and crop top
She adds of her 2018 crash: “When I hit the snow I kind of knew that 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.
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“I didn’t want to put my parents through the stress of it any more.
“Even though they are always super-supportive, for anyone it’s difficult watching your child doing something so dangerous.”
Bubbly Aimee grew up in the Kent village of Farnborough and began skiing aged four on dry slopes. She first tried the real thing four years later on holiday in Canada.
Over the next three weeks, 50 British Winter Olympians, competing in 11 different events, will take to the artificial snow in Beijing and Aimee will be talking us all through the nerve-jangling action.
She will co-host a highlights show between 3pm and 6pm on BBC3 with Scottish former Invictus Games cyclist JJ Chalmers, 35, as well as appearing on Clare Balding’s highlights show at 7pm on BBC2, before hosting her own show Winter Olympics Extra at 8pm on BBC3.
Aimee has always enjoyed the media. In 2017 she posted an Instagram shot of her boarding on a US mountain in just pants and a crop top while at a training camp.
Now, as she charts her career in TV, she can also call on the help of her Strictly pro dancer pal Katya Jones, with whom she played BBC gameshow Pointless in November.
She says: “Katya and I do loads together. She’s my best friend. She’s so kind and supportive and has helped me so much.
“Katya’s always up for trying new things, too. The other week I had her on my shoulders while wakeboarding, which is basically being dragged around by a speedboat while stood on a board.
"She quickly fell in. I’m going to take her out on the snow, too, as she’s never been snowboarding.
“She keeps telling me she’ll show me how to dance but there’s no point, no one can teach me to dance.”
Aimee dated Love Island doctor Alex George in 2018 and she knows being in the spotlight on TV this time is a whole new challenge.
She says: “I’m still getting used to my life being out there. It’s good to have Katya for any advice.”
When I hit the snow I kind of knew that 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.
Aimee Fuller
With the Winter Games live action going on through the night for UK viewers, Aimee is torn over how to juggle her own viewing with her presenting duties from the Manchester studio.
She says: “I’ll stay up and watch it for as long as my eyes can stay awake.
"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.”
Aimee says it is a “dream” to be presenting alongside telly favourite Clare, 51. 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.
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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 ten 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 games was also memorable.
Aimee was a co-commentator as her fellow slope-style boarder Jenny Jones won bronze to claim Britain’s first ever medal on snow.
She and the other commentators’ whooping drew 300 complaints from viewers upset at what they saw as over-the-top coverage.
But Aimee says: “I was 100 per cent spurred on by that experience.
"One of my best friends won a medal, it was one of the best things I’d ever seen. I was 22, I was a snowboarder, not a broadcaster.
I was 100 per cent spurred on by that experience. One of my best friends won a medal, it was one of the best things I’d ever seen. I was 22, I was a snowboarder, not a broadcaster.
Aimee Fuller
“The criticism I got spurred me on to work hard to speak well on TV.
"There may have been some negative comments but how many people watched that day, hundreds of thousands.”
After quitting snowboarding, Aimee took “any job I could” to learn the presenting job, got advice from stars like former Question Of Sport host Sue Barker, 65, and vlogged relentlessly.
Now Aimee, whose book Fear less, Live More will be out this month, will barely be off our screens in the coming weeks — and she is hopeful about our chances in Beijing.
She says: “We Brits, when we train and compete on snow, because it’s not on our doorstep, we train harder, we are hungrier.”
Aimee also believes this could be the most competitive winter games yet.
She says: “One snowboarder I spoke to is scared because the competition is outstanding and the things people are performing are absurd. It will amazing viewing.
“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.”
Insider guide to best Brit hopes
AIMEE gives us the inside track on the Brits to watch over the next three weeks . . .
CHARLOTTE BANKES, 26, snowboard cross
One of our top medal hopes, she competed for France in 2014 and 2018 before switching allegiance.
She has won everything and gold is there for the taking.
KIRSTY MUIR, 17, freestyle skiing
A completely fearless teenager.
Kirsty has the great confidence that youth brings, with loads and loads of talent too. Won silver in 2020 in the Winter Youth Olympics.
Even with the level of competition in Beijing so very high, she will be right there in the mix.
TEAM GB men’s four-man bobsleigh team
Brad Hall, 31, Greg Cackett, 32, Nick Gleeson, 25, and Taylor Lawrence, 25, finished second in the recent World Cup and could do better this time.
The bobsleigh is electric to watch.
How can you not be drawn to four people hurtling down a steep ice shoot?
MATT WESTON, 24, skeleton
Matt is brilliant.
He was our first man to win a World Cup skeleton title for 14 years as he triumphed in Austria in November.
The former rugby player was initially a hope for the 2026 Winter Olympics but is so very good he could do well here.
DAVE RIDING, 35, slalom
Had a massive World Cup slalom victory in Austria recently as he became the first British skier to win a gold medal in the cup’s 55-year history.
He has a great chance of further glory in Beijing and bags of experience to draw on when the pressure is on.
WOMEN’S CURLING TEAM
Eve Muirhead and her team have a great mix of experience and young fresh faces as they look to manoeuvre their stones on the ice with perfect precision.
This will be 31-year-old Eve’s fourth Winter Olympics, so she knows what the big stage is all about.
MIXED DOUBLES CURLING
Our dynamic duo are off to a flier already.
Bruce Mouat and Jen Dodds were at the very top of their game, hitting their targets time and again to claim two wins out of two before today’s opening ceremony even kicked off.
Looking good for an impressive run.
Jamaica bob's back and Nigeria in skiing
EUROPE and North America always dominate at the Winter Olympics but this year there are some inspirational entries from unlikely nations . . .
ARIF KHAN, 31, skier, India
India’s only athlete at the games.
After honing his skills in the mountains of Kashmir, he will compete in the slalom and giant slalom events.
He is the first Indian athlete to qualify for two different events at the Winter Olympics.
MEN’S BOBSLEIGH TEAM, Jamaica
Galvanised by 1993 movie Cool Runnings – inspired by the first ever Jamaican bobsleigh team in 1988 – the careering Caribbean crew are back, featuring an RAF sniper and a Sheffield University student.
MIALITIANA CLERC, 20, alpine skier, Madagascar
She is her country’s first female Olympic skier and the only African woman competing in Beijing.
Mialitiana says: “I feel lucky because there are not a lot of African women in skiing. I try to enjoy it, and be proud of myself.”
SAMUEL IKPEFAN, 29, cross-country skiing, Nigeria
The man from the French Alps will become his country’s first Olympic skier as he tests his endurance in the cross country.
It follows Nigeria’s Winter Olympics debut In 2018, when they made headlines as they qualified in the skeleton and bobsleigh events.
MUHAMMAD KARIM, 26, alpine skiing, Pakistan
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Pakistan’s top skier goes in the slalom and giant slalom and hopes to encourage other skiers from his country.
Part of a five-member Pakistani team in Beijing.