A halfpipe dream come true for Lesley McKenna

It's not the hat-trick of appearances McKenna is enthused about though. In fact, she only becomes aware of it when we meet during the Burton European Open at Laax in Switzerland, where she is fine tuning her Olympic routine. Refreshingly, McKenna is on a high because she's going to be in Vancouver and for someone who loves her sport so much that means everything.

After encountering so many wicked twists and turns, McKenna has every right to be proud. A serious injury in 2005 and an ignominious crash and burn in Turin four years ago put her professional career on the slide. Dropped by Snowsport GB, her financial and technical support dried up and she was on her own.

Retirement crossed her mind. But instead, she plunged head first into coaching and development work, continued to ride freestyle and, when she recovered fully from injury, began to compete again, just for fun. Now 35, at an age when many contemporaries have long since had enough of living from a suitcase on the World Cup tour, she's back at the sharp end.

"I'm way beyond proving points," insists McKenna. "I'm ecstatic that at 35 I can still be in the world's top 30 at such a hard-core sport as halfpipe snowboarding. It's hard on your body, it's hard mentally, it's very skilful. Just to be there and be included is an achievement in itself. I know what it's taken to be there."

Britain's most successful snowboarder is made of sturdy stuff. After smashing an ankle and snapping a tendon in early 2005, she battled back to contest the Turin Olympics. Judges don't award sympathy points for turning up though, so after falling on both runs and scoring 0.00, McKenna was joint last. "I went there and tried my hardest, but it was asking a lot when there's that much pressure for things to come together when you've had no training and you've been injured for eight months, four of which I couldn't even walk. I was a bit unlucky, maybe tried a bit too hard, and I crashed twice. I was really brave to take it on. I was just happy I could snowboard again. There was a time when I was told that I wouldn't snowboard at that level again.

"I was ecstatic that I'd made a comeback, but there was a fallout around me after Turin. I'd been living the injury and the rehab. No-one else had seen that so they maybe didn't consider just what an amazing feat I'd accomplished by even coming back. It's easy for people to write you off and as an athlete you have to be really strong and passionate about your sport to survive it."

There's no doubting McKenna's passion. A World Cup competitor since 1997 who has accumulated six podium finishes, she was 17th at the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City and has been around for so long that fellow competitors see her as a mother figure. All of her adult life has been about snowboarding, and branching out has given her a new perspective.

"I've been developing coaching programmes, I've done my avalanche course, I've learned about snow and mountains and I'm heavily involved in lots of different areas in snowboarding," she says. "If anything, it has made me even more motivated than ever about the sport in general."

When coaching the Roxy junior team girls, McKenna soon learned that demonstrating the tricks of her trade was the best teaching tool at her disposal. So she started competing in the halfpipe occasionally to give her young charges someone to shoot at while proving to herself that the old legs – kept supple by lots of yoga – could still perform. "It's back to how it was for me when I started snowboarding. I'm a part-time athlete. I've continued to ride pipe, just on the side. Somewhere in there, I must have a good base because I've had some of the best results of my career in the last year and a half."

The results persuaded McKenna to give the Olympics one last shot, and even though it only became her priority from September she did enough to qualify. "I'm stoked that I can put myself at the Olympics without the proper support," she says. "But it has been far from ideal. I wouldn't have been able to continue this year if it hadn't been for the Scottish Institute of Sport and Snowsport Scotland. They've stepped in and supported me for my third Olympics at the last minute, even though the British Olympic Association and Snowsport GB had written me off. Without those two bodies, there would have been no chance. My team, Roxy, have really supported me too."

After the Games the "Roxy Mum" will concentrate on a new role as coach and manager of the team's senior riders, many of whom she'll be up against in Vancouver. Not that it matters.

"Snowboarding has a unique spirit," she explains. "We're all friends. If your friend does a really good run and knocks you out of first place, that's such a good feeling, because you're part of snowboarding. I don't think that spirit exists in other sport. It's special."

For McKenna these days, the most important thing is not to win but to take part. "I'm going to the Olympics for the third time, against the odds, and I'm going to ride as well as I can. I haven't been able to be a full-time halfpipe rider, so who knows. I'm a good rider. I'll ride my heart out, and if I land a clean run I'll be happy."

Just being there will make McKenna feel like she's landed on her feet.