SNOWBOARDER Jamie Nicholls described his performance at the Winter Olympics in PyeongChang as "a personal failure".

Yet he has vowed to use this to come back stronger in four years' time at the 2022 competition in Beijing.

Bradford-born Nicholls finished 11th in his heat as he competed first in the big air event, which was making its Games debut.

It was not enough to qualify for the final and the 24-year-old admitted that nerves played a part in his performance.

Speaking to the Telegraph & Argus on his return home, Nicholls said: "I remember being stood up there and it felt like forever.

"I was super nervous and that's why my first run didn't go to plan. I took off a little bit early, lost the speed and then came up a bit short on my rotation.

"When you're the first person to drop in, stood at the top and everybody's looking at you and watching you, it's quite a scary thing."

Nicholls felt he was "super unlucky" on his second run, after nailing the tricks he wanted to perform, and reflected: "I felt like I got a low score for what I did."

He has had success at major events before, becoming the first-ever British male snowboarder to win gold at a World Cup event when doing so in the Czech Republic in 2016, but has learnt just as much from his efforts in South Korea.

Nicholls said: "Next time I'm not going to give them an excuse. I'm going to go there and do the best run I can possibly do and if I fall twice on it, I fall twice on it.

"I've learnt from that mistake, doing things that safe, when really I should just go there and do something that's the best I can do."

Nicholls was very clear about his future, declaring: "I'm not done. I'm more determined than ever now.

"It's been a little bit annoying, and I feel like I've had a personal failure, but I feel like I needed that failure to succeed."

Nicholls also had little doubt that his cousin Katie Ormerod, a fellow snowboarder from Brighouse, would bounce back from the broken heel that kept her out of competing in South Korea.

"We're going to go the next Olympics and we're both going to smash it and bring home medals," he said.

"She's strong and she's determined. She's going to come back from this as she's very talented. I felt like both of us just got a bit unlucky at this Olympics."