Elise Christie targeting 2022 Winter Olympics medal before hanging up her skates

Speed skater Elise Christie is hopeful of adding a medal at the 2022 Winter Olympics before retiring.

Elise Christie competing in the Pyeongchang 2018 Winter Olympics

The Scot believes success in Beijing would be the perfect way to bring the curtain down on her career as she aims for a “happy ending”.

She told the BBC’s Fair Play podcast: “I'm definitely working towards an Olympic medal at the next Games and hopefully a happy retirement, a happy end to my career.”

The 30-year-old missed out on podium places at successive Winter Olympics in 2014 and 2018 and has recently spoken publicly about her issues with mental health and self-harm.

Christie believes she is in a better place but will continue to challenge the stigma surounding mental health for as long as she in the spotlight.

She continued: “ Everything's aimed towards [a medal in Beijing], taking it once step at a time and really working hard on weaknesses from the last Games.

“I'm trying to enjoy it - I know I've only got a year-and-a-half of pushing myself and grinding myself into the ground every day.

"While I'm still in the limelight I'm trying to [challenge] the stigma surrounding mental health as that's a big goal of mine."

The skater is candid about her day-to-day life as she records good days and bad days.

Christie added: “I've been a bit up and down. I had quite a long good period for a while; I struggled a bit recently but I’m on the way back up again now."

Although she is planning on taking a step back from the competitive side of the sport she is hopeful of continuing in a coaching role.

She explained: “I want to be enjoying skating properly and helping others. I’m hoping that I’ll be back coaching and I might even skate relay, still.

“I think this will be the last Winter games for me. But it's not about the medal, it's more about the experience. Leading up to it, I want to be healthy, happy, working with a coach that'm enjoying working with and believing we can win.

"I want to be in a good place mentally and I want to be open about what's going on and who I am, rather than hiding behind everything. I want to come out of it saying, 'that was my best shot'.”