By David McPherson

Catherine Skinner is now facing the task of finding motivation following considerable personal success.

With Olympic gold in her pocket Skinner momentarily stepped away from competitive shooting to focus on her life outside of sport.

“It was quite daunting actually – seeing life on the other side of the fence. I had the realisation that I’d been so focused on the goals with the Olympics and sport that I’d never really had any system in place outside of it,” she says.

“I needed to go and try and set up for the future and take a bit of a more long term view.”

Skinner spent a month travelling through Japan on a skiing holiday before completing a three month internship.

“I’d been studying prior to Rio then I graduated just prior to the Games. Studying had always been a balancing factor and now on the other side of it I don’t have that balance,” she said.

Coming back into elite sport after time out was always going to be difficult.

“It is a bit daunting coming back and keeping the motivation going. You get into a momentum so coming back and starting from scratch is a real tough challenge,” she said.

“We’ve become really competitive in women’s trap which is my event. There are enough people there to fill the team twice over so it’s really difficult to come back and get back into form.”

Skinner will turn her attention to qualifying for GC2018 after this month’s ISSF World Championships.

“I think the Games are going to be incredible because it’s a good opportunity for friends and family that have been supportive along the way but haven’t been able to be there overseas for various reasons. The fact that we’ve got it in our backyard means that they can see exactly what we’re doing.”