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24-year-old Scottish paddler skipped most of last season due to osteolysis - a condition which meant her clavicle bone was breaking down. She tried to resolve the problem with rest, but i turned out the solution was a surgery.

 

“It has been one of the most challenging things I have gone through. I have not really paddled for a consistent block pain-free for almost three years now, and if I want to continue canoeing that was really the only option. They shaved off the end of my clavicle bone to take it back to healthy bone and now I am in the rehab stages of that surgery. These are my dreams, my goals since I was very young. And to not be able to train how I want to has led to me not being in the shape that I want to and lots of disappointment. When you can see your competitors out there training, that is all you want to do and your body is not letting you. It is pretty hard,” she said for BBC.

 

Despite missing out the 2020 Olympic Games her eyes are set on Paris 2024, “I have wanted to go to the Olympics since I was eight, and that still very much is a dream of mine. I am just focusing now on getting my body to a place that I am able to train and then for sure Paris is on the dream board.”

 

In her career so far Eilidh won gold medal in C1 team event at 2017 World Championships, three medals in C1 team events at senior European Championships and seven medals at U23 World and European Championships in C1 team events. She also has a medal from team event at Junior World Championships.

 

While fighting the injury Eilidh started a programme wishing to inspire girls who were already in the sport, to nurture their talents and fall in love with the canoe slalom. For the Slalom Inspires programme which started in 2018 she won the Social Impact Award at the UK Sport PLx Conference in Manchester. Read more here: