Team GB star reveals gruelling realities of life as an Olympian including 6,000 calorie a day diet, 9 hour training sessions and freezing in ice baths

Competing at the Olympic Games is certainly no easy feat, as the 327 Team GB athletes currently competing in Paris will know all too well.

From gruelling training to painful injuries and time apart from loved ones, a British Olympic veteran has revealed she trained nine hours a day, ate 6,000 calories and worked on a four-year plan between games.

Sarah Lindsay, 44, from London, attended the Winter Olympics three times to skate before quitting the sport 14 years ago.

In an interview with OK magazine, she explained that she got up at 5:30 a.m. every day.

She would then measure her heart rate and hydration levels by sending in a urine sample.

“The Olympic training plan is a four-year cycle. I trained six to nine hours a day, six days a week, and in between those sessions I worked on nutrition, physical therapy, video analysis, race strategies, psychological programs, sleep and food, over and over again,” she explained.

Olympic speed skater Sarah Lindsay, pictured here in Turin, Italy in 2006. The 44-year-old, who retired from the sport 14 years ago, recently reflected on her fascinating career in an interview with OK magazine.

Sarah Lindsay, recently pictured on her Instagram account. She now runs gyms, ROAR, in both London and Dubai

Every morning, before she started her official training, she had to fill out forms with information about her sleep and have a motivational talk with her coach.

Only then would she be ready to enter the ice rink and start training.

Grueling training sessions ensure that skaters push themselves to the limit with the specific 90-degree angle required to optimize their speed and efficiency. They also create record levels of lactic acid, which causes muscle pain.

To keep up with her grueling training on the ice, which pushed athletes to their limits time and again, Sarah had to fuel her body with a whopping 6,000 calories a day just to stay afloat.

After the intensive training on the ice rink, there was more ice and after training she took an ice-cold bath, despite the painful frostbite on her toes.

And it didn’t stop there. Sarah had to fend for herself by going for a run, a bike ride or a weightlifting session and then an ice bath.

British short track skaters Sarah Lindsay (left) and Elise Christie during a training session in Vancouver for the 2010 Winter Olympics, the same year she retired.

Sarah Lindsay in action in the 500m heatsm during the Women’s Short Track in Turin, Italy, in 2006. While competing in three Olympic events, Sarah recalled a rigorous training regimen that required her to train up to nine hours a day

Not surprisingly, this left Sarah little time to invest in her other relationships or even in herself.

She said at the time that she was not at all impressed by the demanding schedule and that she was relieved to be able to work towards her Olympic dream.

Each task day required Sarah to do mental work to calm her muscles and prevent her from constantly twitching, and she also had to see a psychiatrist regularly to train her mind.

She credits her success to her indomitable self-confidence, saying she knew her dreams would come true with all the work she put into them.

Sarah made her debut as a skater for Team GB in 1996 and by 2000 she had become British women’s champion for nine years in a row.

She was coached by fellow skating hero Nicky Gooch, who won bronze in the 500 metres at the 1994 Winter Olympics.

Sarah first competed at the Winter Olympics in 2002 at the Salt Lake City Games, later in Turin in 2006 and Vancouver in 2010.

Sarah ended her career on a high note, breaking the British speed skating record in her final race, before retiring to focus on her fitness brand ROAR.

And from the age of eight she knew that she would seize her chance at the Olympic Games.

Sarah photographed enjoying a cocktail on a recent holiday. While training for the Olympics, she would need to consume 6,000 calories a day to maintain her body composition

Sarah is pictured during the women’s 500-meter short track at the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics. As part of the intense routine during the games, Sarah woke up at 5:30 a.m. to measure her heart rate and had scientists check her hydration levels by providing a morning urine sample.

Sarah imagined herself enjoying a recent vacation. She remembered feeling constantly tired, both physically and emotionally, when she was training for the Olympics in her youth

She remembers feeling constantly emotionally and physically tired.

She said: ‘Training full-time is emotional because you’re almost always tired and on the days when you’re struggling mentally, it felt daunting. On the other hand, the days when I was skating fast and feeling good, it created a natural high that was so great, I forgot about the pain and remembered why it was all worth it.

“Believe me, there’s nothing in the world better than flying through a corner at over 30 mph on a 1mm thick slice.”

Plus, the experience of being in the Olympic Village took its toll, Sarah said.

During their stay in the Olympic village, the athletes’ bedrooms were manned by armed guards, which came as a shock to the London-born skater.

She described how she experienced an incredible shock to the system when confronted with people like the acclaimed and famous.

‘I felt the pressure of my competitors watching me train while their coaches timed my laps to get an idea of ​​my current form. All the mental preparation in the world can never prepare you for something like this.’

The now 44-year-old has long since left her skating days behind and is now focusing on her fitness brand ROAR, for which she has gyms in both London and Dubai.