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“I haven’t had a single competition for over a year now,” said McIntosh, highlighting the devastating impact of COVID-19 on her sport. “It’s the longest I’ve ever been away from competition, and this is the longest I’ve been in one country since I was ten years old, perhaps even younger.“It’s certainly the longest I’ve been in one place without staying with other people or being in a hotel. It’s very strange.”
“I tried to do a little bit of training at the start of lockdown,” explained McIntosh. ”When the Olympics was cancelled, though, and everything else in between, I decided to take a break for a little while. Rest and recuperate, I guess.“I train at the University of Edinburgh and I managed to get some of my equipment out of there before the Olympics was cancelled – and I tried to see if there was another venue I could train at later on.“My dad (her coach) had some of the equipment I’m not allowed to keep in my flat. I had some things I was allowed to keep with me, so I was able to do some, what we call, dry training, in my flat for a couple of weeks.“My flatmate is a biathlete and it’s important she maintains high fitness. I started doing a lot more fitness work with her to try and make physical improvements, which is sometimes hard to do during shooting training.”
“In shooting there is always shock results,” she acknowledged. “It’s quite normal. There will be shock results in both directions with people shooting higher than you’d expect and others shooting lower than you’d expect, but I don’t know if that will have anything to do with COVID-19 as people can find the Olympics very stressful. I am not sure if it will be more different than usual.”
“I’d like a medal, that would be cool,” she said. “It’s perfectly possible and it’s not beyond the realms of possibility. I’ve only got one event before the Olympics and I haven’t shot for over a year in competition, so I think if I go out there and shoot well then I’ll be happy regardless of what happens.“There are other athletes in other countries that have been competing. There’s recently been a World Cup in Delhi that I didn’t attend, and lots of other athletes are beginning to compete again.”
“Normally it’s hard to juggle things when I’m away so much,” said McIntosh. “Being stuck at home has made things a little bit easier. I’m nearly finished my Masters and I’ve got a few assignments due in the next few weeks. I’m getting through the work and then it’s just my dissertation after that.”
‘It’s awesome. I love being a part of Winning Students,” she continued. “I think it’s nice to hear about all the other student-athletes and sometimes getting to meet them, obviously outwith COVID-19 times.
“It’s great meeting with other student-athletes to find out how they deal with mixing sport and studies. I also get quite a lot of funding from Winning Students, which is helpful for tuition fees, kit and maintaining a healthy diet. My equipment is sometimes quite expensive so any help is much appreciated.”