Gifted Edinburgh skier forced to retire injured set for football career

GIFTED sportswoman Anna Vincenti is swapping piste for pitch as she makes the leap from international skier to footballer.

A succession of horrendous injuries forced her to call time on a promising freestyle snowsports career having cruelly missed out on last year’s Winter Olympics.

Now playing in goal for Motherwell after months of rehab, Anna spent last week on trial with the Malta national squad - having qualified through her grandad.

“I feel a lot of different emotions now that I am retiring from competitive skiing,” said Anna, 23, from Colinton.

“Mostly excited for the new adventures ahead but being part of such an amazing team since I was 14 years old, it is sad to be parting with them and the sport.”

A Scottish national football representative in under-15s and under 17s, former Hibs player Anna juggled both sports in her early teens.

Anna started playing for Hibs when she was just ten. at junior level from under-11s to under-17s. She also represented Scotland at under-15 and under-17 level.

She turned her full attention to freeskiing and made her Europa Cup debut as a 16-year-old in 2011.

Anna went on to finish 10th at the Junior World Championships in 2013 and later that season scored a World Cup top ten in New Zealand.

Bouncing back from a torn ACL in her left knee in 2015, she finished second at a Europa Cup event in 2016.

Her sights were firmly set on PyeongChang before another knee injury at the start of the Olympic season ruled her out of the 2018 Games.

She made her debut for Motherwell in the Scottish Women’s Premier League this season where coaches discovered her Maltese eligibility through grandad Clifford.

“I have learnt so much from being a professional skier which I will now be able to take with me into every aspect of my life,” said Anna.

“I can’t thank my sponsors, the Scottish Institute of Sport and everyone at GB Park+Pipe enough for all the support they have given me over the years - never giving up on me even when I was injured.

“I wish everyone on the team the best and I will be supporting from afar.”

GB Snowsport head of coaching Pat Sharples paid tribute to Vincenti who had trained in the GB Park+Pipe programme for almost a decade.“Anna has been one of the longest-serving team members on the GB Park+Pipe team and competed at the highest level in slopestyle, big air and halfpipe,” he said. “Although she’s been incredibly unlucky with injuries over the last few years, she’s had great success and achieved some very credible results including top 10s at World Cup and Europa cup podiums.“I knew Anna would be successful in anything she put her focus into outside of skiing and so it is no surprise to see her already excelling in the football world. We wish her all the best.”