Meet my friend Erika.

Meet my friend Erika, otherwise known to me as Riedl. She is 5'5" and has dirty blonde hair. She has thisuncanny ability to polish off a bag of Haribo gummi bears within seconds. She also has this incredible ability to use swear words with elegance and grace. She is Italian, likes the colour yellow and spends most of her weekends going down an ice track face first on a skeleton at 130km/hour...yes, 130km/hour!

A couple of weeks ago I had the opportunity to see Erika race at Igls - it was long overdue. I had been to the track a couple of weeks prior to see the bobsleigh competition at the 2012 Innsbruck Youth Olympic Games. At the time I had been amazed at the speed at which the young athletes flew down the track. Knowing that this time someone I knew would be going down the track, and head first, added an element of stress which I had not felt previously.

We went to watch Erika train on Saturday afternoon. We walked up to the start area. Seeing her dressed in her one-piece black training suit and her shiny white helmet, it all became real, or perhaps surreal. When you have known someone for so long, you picture them in a certain way, and until now,this was not the way that I had pictured her. Erika picked up her sled and made her way down to the start. As she waited for her name to be called, she closed her eyes and pictured her perfect run down the track, curve by curve. Her name was called, she moved to the start line and she was off.

My inexperience as a photographer shone through as I barely managed to get a decent photo of her first run. The announcements were in German. As we saw her final time come across the board, I knew that she had made it down safely. Phew. For her second training run we moved to turn 7, where spectators get this incredible 180 degree view as the sliders go by. Her second run went well, although the ever hard on herself Erika was not pleased.

That night I had dinner with Erika, an experienced slider, whose final racewould take place tomorrow afternoon, and a rookie. The talk focused primarily on skeleton and the day's training runs. The experienced slider, Piero, who is also Erika's training partner and has become a good friend to her, talked her through her training runs from earlier that day. He provided advice on where she could gain some time the following day. There was talk of upcoming competitions and the spring and summer weight and speed training sessions. As I listened to the discussions and watched Erika fill up on the perfect pre-competition meal, perfectly cooked pasta, this sense of pride came over me.

Erika's trophy collection grew by one the following day, as she came insecond. While we often see athletes celebrating by opening a bottle of Champagne, we celebrated over hot chocolate with her sister, her sister's boyfriend, the rookie and the experienced slider.

There is nothing that I want more than to see Erika's name on the start list for the 2014 Sochi Olympic Games, however it is going to be an uphill battle (and a very steep uphill battle at that). However, Erika is one of the most hard-working, hard-headed, dedicated and compassionate people that I know. Erika takes a risk every time she goes down the track. But she took a risk by taking time off from work, leaving her apartment and living out of a suitcase for several months. Erika has taken those risks that many of us wish we could, but we never do. I will be forever proud of Erika for making the decision she did.

www.erikariedl.com