The highest of the icy Winter Olympics halfpipe is a world away from the Californian climes of Stanford College.
And but it’s the place Atkin’s two worlds collide.
As an Olympic medal-winning skier – and a pupil at one of many United States’ most prestigious schools.
Atkin, who was born and raised within the US to a Malaysian mom and English father, research symbolic programs – “a mixture of cognitive science, finding out the mind, the way it works and the mechanisms of that, mixed with laptop science and finding out these machines,” as she instructed BBC Sport earlier than the Video games.
Olympic halfpipes are 6.7m excessive, with Atkin reaching an amplitude of greater than 5m throughout her ultimate.
Which means, ought to one thing go unsuitable mid-air, athletes have a close to 12m drop on to pure ice, a danger Atkin had beforehand struggled to deal with.
“I’ve discovered a lot that has helped me a lot being an athlete in an motion sport. The methods and manoeuvres that we’re doing inherently have numerous danger to them,” she mentioned.
“I’ve struggled with worry loads previously, particularly once I was youthful. Studying concerning the mechanisms of the mind has actually helped me apply these learnings and new mindsets and be capable of take a look at these theories, in apply, in my sport.
“It is in these actually arduous moments that you simply present your self what is feasible and that’s whenever you actually push your limits.
“I have been capable of finding my energy in that.”
