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A Guernsey schoolgirl has set her sights on the Youth Olympics having already won international accolades for the Great British team.
Emma-Josephine Martineau Fortin splits her time between sometimes-sunny Guernsey and the snowy-ski slopes of Europe where she has recently won two gold medals, and the overall Snowsport England Championship trophy plate, during the recent English Alpine Championships.
She was competing in the u14 category at the event, held in Italy last week.
Pictured: Emma-Josephine Martineau Fortin competes under the Guernsey flag for Team Great Britain. Her most recent competition wins are pictured above.
Emma-Jo has been racing for the British for a couple of years, being selected for the u14 squad late last year after training with Ambition Racing in Austria - which is considered to be "one of the prominent racing academy's for British Children," according to her father Eric.
"Through this, she had early races in December and January that led her to be picked up as one of the six athletes for GB Snowsport in the under 14 and the woman categories and during the first half of the season she did very well," he said.
"I think she was close to being the number one pick for the British but this race that she just completed in Bormio, Italy is the Snowsport England Championship. This is the one where every kid, not only from England, but from the United Kingdom are showing up to try to compete and it's over a four day period and out of all the races Emma-Jo was successful at winning the Super G, winning the giant slalom and finishing fourth in the slalom category with a third position on the second round.
"She basically nailed it by, by dominating all the other athletes her age. It was a great, great achievement and we're very proud of her."
Emma's achievements are all the more remarkable after she, her parents and her younger sister were in a car crash last month. Emma had nearly 40 stitches in her head as a result.
"...she really, really worked hard in the last in the last four weeks and did a lot of physio, a lot of things to make sure she was ready and she arrived at this race fearless and it pays, it was great," said Mr Martineau-Fortin.
Pictured: With two gold medals around her neck, Emma-Josephine Martineau Fortin celebrated after another successful competition.
With a national title under her belt, Emma-Jo is looking at what else she can achieve.
"This season, there will be another British Champs in Tignes, that will be in April. I will be preparing for those races and then I've got a few international races that I can compete in which I'm willing to do. One of them is in Italy, those are international races where not only the British are there, but every nation of skiing are allowed to send two of their top seeds."
Following those events Emma-Jo will be competing in races on the Swiss circuit, then heading to Canada for the Whistler Cup.
She is the first Guernsey resident to ski for Great Britain and she's got her sights set on the global stage.
"...obviously, as you go up the age categories, one thing I'm very willing to do would be the Junior Olympics for Great Britain. That's probably one of my main goals right now, even though it's a bit early to go for it, I think that is a great goal to have.
"It's from 14 to 18 years old, so I could do it. The Junior Olympics I think are in 2028 so by that time I would be 18 years old. So from 14 to 18, I would have probably my prime years. So it would be absolutely fantastic."
Emma-Jo's dad, Eric said he's very proud of her skiing achievements but also of her progress in other areas, as well as her sister's.
"I think that's quite good to see things progressing, but she's also working very hard in school and I think that's something we're very proud of, and we also have a second one coming in Lily-May who is younger, but she is also performing very well and we hope that the two sisters will do well in that sport."
To hear more about Lily-May's skiing and details on Emma-Jo's plans for the future listen to the full interview below with Eric and Emma-Jospehine Martineau-Fortin below:
Skiing success for Guernsey schoolgirl
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