Winter Olympics 2014: Elise Christie, speed skater, admits she 'almost quit' Sochi Games over relentless Twitter trolls

Christie is disqualified

Olympic speed skater Elise Christie has admitted she came painfully close to quitting her bid to compete in the Sochi 2014 games after being mercilessly trolled on Twitter, describing suffering the online bullying as “the lowest I had felt in my career”.

The 23-year-old Scottish athlete qualified for the quarter-finals of the 1,000metre short track speed skating earlier today, but, she admitted, she almost didn’t make the starting line.

She was forced to quit social media after a seemingly endless stream of abusive tweets poured in following two disqualifications.

One, for her collision in the 500m final last week, which saw her miss out on a silver medal by a whisker. The other, when she was ruled not to have skated over the line in the 1500m.

“Obviously I spent a few days feeling quite down and struggling psychologically,” she told the Metro. “I came here to train yesterday and found that really difficult, it was quite emotional.

“I was then told about all the good support back home and that really boosted me. I smiled for the first time in a while when I heard that and I can’t get across how thankful I am because I was considering not getting back on, and the support I have had is what has pushed me to get back on and do that.”

Asked if she had seriously considered pulling out, European champion Christie said: “I did after the 1500. I thought, ‘I don’t want to do this’ but I would never pull out really because I always have that grit in me that keeps me carrying on.

“But I was feeling pretty low, the lowest I have felt in my career.”