Jemima Crathorne is riding her adrenaline rush all the way to Paris

Jemima Crathorne's Olympic journey all started with a pencil case.

The extreme sports lover from Canterbury is just two years away from her beloved Kitesurfing making its Olympic debut and hopes to have her name on the start sheet in Paris.

Crathorne began kitesurfing alongside her thrill-seeking family at a young age before rediscovering it during University when taking part in British Sailing's Kite4Gold initiative.

The 25-year-old is now one of five British Sailing athletes in the top 15 in the world.

She said: "Ever since I was little, my dad just always wanted to do loads of adventures altogether as a family.

"My oldest sister for her 11th or 12th birthday, she got given a pencil case and on it was a picture of a girl kite surfing and my sister said it looked so cool and she wanted to give the sport a go.

"They both went to Wales and it just so happened that the woman on the pencil case ended up being the one giving them a lesson and she was World Champion - it was Kirsty Jones.

"I think her enthusiasm for the sport made my dad and sister completely fall in love with it and the rest of us saw that and wanted to get involved."

Within the Formula Kite Foil class, Crathorne has the luxury of multiple competitions to race but has her eyes on the upcoming World Championships in Cagliari in October.

She said: "For bigger championships like Europeans and Worlds, that's results day as you just want to be doing the best that you can.

"I think for me, if I did Worlds right now, I would hope to get in the top ten but it's in October so we're a few months away and I would like to think I could be in the top five. And this time next year I would love to be getting podium."

Away from the water, Crathorne thrives on the rush of adrenaline elsewhere, taking up outdoor ice climbing as a hobby and hoping to compete in cross-country para-gliding in the future.

But for now, the thought of being on that plane to Paris lives in the kite surfer's head and she is excited to see what exposure the Games brings to the sport.

Although Paris 2024 will be the first time Formula Kite Foil will be an Olympic event, Crathorne has always dreamed of being Olympic Champion in the event.

She said: "Over these past four years I've been fortunate enough to get a glimpse of actually how much it does take to get there and everyone who's been at the Games before I just have heaps of respect for them and they're super inspiring."

"I think [kitesurfing] has a stigma that you have to be really strong or you have to be super coordinated and everyone looks at it and thinks they could never do that.

"But I think having it in the Games will promote that actually anyone and everyone really can do it.

"There's something so special about going fast on the water. When the rest of the world is busy and hectic and life is getting in the way, the freedom you have out there on the water is so special.

"Paris will be fantastic because it will introduce the sport to so many people who have only ever heard of it, you might not have ever seen it before and from there it will have a knock on effect in the development of it."

The British Sailing Team are the most successful national Olympic sailing team of all time and will proudly fly the flag for Great Britain at Paris 2024