Bradford figure skater's Olympic dreams

A young man from Bradford is the perfect example of how drive and determination can spiral you to the top.

Harry Mattick from Bradford is on the brink of selection for next year's Winter Olympics in Sochi in Russia.

He began figure skating to help him recover from a serious car accident - which killed his father - when he was just five years old. Now 19, he's already making big waves on the national circuit.

He said: "It was not something that I was talented at at all. Nor to this day am I talented. I have to work to get everything I can do. Some people have a natural ability, a natural skill. They can come and they can just do it, and I envy that sometimes. It's shear effort. It grabbed me and I love doing it and I still love doing it. But it's not something I just took to like a duck to water."

"When you're running and walking, you can't go as fast as on the ice. Because when there's no friction it just feels like you're flying. It's really brilliant."

He initially took to the ice under doctors orders. When Harry was five he was involved a car accident that killed his father and left him with serious injuries.

Harry added: "They said it was a good way to increase concentration because I'd had a head injury. I'd broken a leg so it's a good way to build up leg strength. They kind of recommended it as part of the recovery process."

It certainly worked. A five- time junior national champion, Harry recently won silver at the senior British Championships and has now set his sights on competing for Great Britain in next year's Winter Olympics.

he said: "It's something that I've wanted to do ever since I was nine or 10 years old. I can remember one year I watched the World Championships, not the Olympics. I watched the World Championships. Sometimes two or three times a day until the following World Championships because I just wanted to learn and get better and better."

Harry's got just over 10 months to skate his way into Olympic contention. For him Sochi 2014 would be a dream come true.