KATIE Ormerod’s dad can remember the exact moment he knew his daughter would be an Olympian - just four, she’d flung herself out of a cardboard box and busted her nose.

Now - 16 years on - she’s flinging herself off mountains and going for double gold at the Winter Olympics, which starts two weeks today.

Diminutive snowboarder Ormerod may appear reserved and come across as quiet but she’s hoping to make a big noise in PyeongChang, where the 20-year old is a genuine medal contender in both the Slopestyle and Big Air events.

Already an X-Games medallist, last season she won bronze at the Olympic test event and became the first Brit to win a World Cup Big Air competition.

And don’t doubt her blonde ambition.

Fellow British snowboarder Jenny Jones famously won slopestyle bronze in Sochi, Team GB’s first-ever medal on snow. Ormerod now wants to make her own piece of history by going even better.

“I feel like I’m in the best possible position to bring back a medal,” said Ormerod, who will be joined on the team by cousin Jamie Nicholls, who finished sixth in the men’s slopestyle in 2014.

“I’ve had the best two seasons of my career and loads of podiums, which has really boosted my confidence.

“I’m feeling really good and I’m not letting any of the pressure get to me, I’m just trying to get there healthy and fit. I’ve got all the tricks I want and I’m riding really well, so I feel I could bring back a medal.”

Halifax, 449 feet above sea level, is not the sort of place you expect to find an aspiring Winter Olympian but it’s on the dry slope of the local ski centre that Ormerod first strapped on a board.

And, just over a decade later, she became the first woman to land a dizzying, gravity-defying backside double-cork 1080 - two 360-degree front flips and a full 360-degree corkscrew spin.

It’s a trick - which has now been viewed 180,000 times on YouTube - that many thought was not possible and she remains the only woman to perfect it.

“Mum and Dad put me into gymnastics when I was four because I was just going mental in the house, flying off things,” added Ormerod, whose brother Harvey is an academy player at Bradford City.

“I started snowboarding at five and I used to do that and gymnastics five nights a week. It was sport, sport, sport, I loved being active.

“It got to the point where I could have chosen either sport but I chose snowboarding while I still trained in gymnastics and I’m having the best time now.”

However, she’s already overcome her fair share of injuries, snapping her anterior cruciate ligament in 2014 and breaking her back during training for last year’s World Championships.

“My friends back home don’t really get what I do,” she admits. “I have to show them videos, it’s a lot easy than telling people I fly off jumps the size of houses.

“Snowboarding is an action sport, it’s extreme and dangerous. I’ve had injuries throughout my career but I love it that much that I wouldn’t want to do anything else.

“When I broke my back I didn’t realise how bad it was. It was pretty scary when they told me but I never thought for a minute I’d miss the Olympics again. Now I’m going I just want to make it happen.”

*You can watch Katie Ormerod compete LIVE and on demand across Eurosport channels. Don’t miss a moment of the Olympic Winter Games on Eurosport, the Eurosport App (available on IOS, Android and Windows devices), and online at www.eurosport.co.uk/olympics