Rowlands beginning to find her feet as she plots return to the slopes

Rowlands is no stranger to rewriting the history books despite her tender years, having become the youngest-ever athlete to win the overall British Championships slopestyle competition in 2013.

And that was just the start.

Add to that the glittering accolades of gold and bronze in respective halfpipe and slopestyle events at the 2016 Youth Olympic Games in Lillehammer – Kent's Rowlands becoming the first ever GB athlete to win a gold medal in those Games.

The 18-year-old finished the 2017 season second in the AFP World Tour women's overall rankings – first in the junior halfpipe rankings and second in the junior overall – and was primed for a call-up to the senior ranks heading to PyeongChang.

However, she suffered a major knee injury on the slopes in Aspen, Colorado just weeks before the showpiece in South Korea, ruling her out for several months.

After extensive rehab, the end of this is now in sight and she has an eye on a competitive return.

"Everyone found that particular jump [in Colorado] really awful," she said. "The wind got me and I went way too big, missed the entire landing and the impact went through my knee and messed up the cartilage.

"It's a year on and I've only just started skiing again, but I'm slowly finding my feet and hoping to maybe do a World Cup at the end of the season, but it's touch and go."

Skiing is in Rowlands' blood – her older brother Mike is also a freestyle skier – and she admitted there was a prominent sibling rivalry that drove them on in previous years – although this has since forged into a unified show of love and support given the lack of youngsters taking part in the sport – something she believes is changing for the better.

"We used to be competitive because he's two years older than me and I used to think ‘I can do better than you!" she said. "That has calmed down now, though, and we support and help each other as much as we can.

"When I grew up there was no one around my age competing so I felt a bit lonely as a girl. Now, though, there's so many girls coming through and getting into it, and the future is definitely bright."

Despite a significant period off the slopes, Rowlands' ambitions are unwavering, although she remains level-headed despite her plethora of success in such a promising and burgeoning early career.

And after coming so close to getting a place on the biggest stage of all, she admitted she would love to do what she does best at the top table as soon as she can.

"I just want to stay happy and do what makes me happy," she said. "Competing in the Olympics and X Games would obviously be nice, but if I don't make it it's not the end of the world.

"The Youth Olympics have obviously been my biggest highlight so far, the feeling I got representing my country and doing people proud was brilliant."

Sportsbeat 2019