Marais braved a bone oedema (bone stress) in her lower back to compete at the qualifiers.
“The Olympic qualifying event was a great experience, but, unfortunately, I did not skate my routines with the perfection that I have been practising and planning,” she said.
“The event was extremely tough, as the top ranked skaters from 29 countries were competing for only six available places at the Olympics and, therefore, I needed to skate to my full ability in order to get a place.
“I was not able to reach the top six ranking, but, if I had skated my best and received the score that I achieved at an international competition in December, last year, I would have qualified.”
The figure skater said she was advised by Prof Wayne Derman, a sport physician at the Sport Science Institute of South Africa, to stop training and miss the qualifier due to the high risk of getting a fracture in her spine.
“I took the decision to continue to skate and compete at the event in Germany, as I have been training toward this goal for many years and was not going to give up without trying,” she said.
“I had to drastically adapt my training and went from doing six sessions a day, six days a week, where I am able to train over 500 jumps, to being able to skate for only one hour a day, doing 40 jumps in a week.
“Unfortunately, due to the nature of figure skating, and because I do triple jumps, the quantity of jumps is very important in order to be able to perfect the take off, to be able to do the 1 080 degree rotation and land on one foot.”
The skater believes that her programmes at the competition were not an accurate representation of her ability and is aiming to come back stronger at the Four Continents Championships, in Taiwan, in January, next year.
