As one competitive calamity followed another during the Winter Olympics in Sochi Elise Christie cut a vulnerable figure. Disqualified not once, not twice, but thrice for an array of offences the then 23-year-old looked distraught to the point of broken, the pain of failure exacerbated by an intimidating assault on social media after she was deemed the guilty party when Korean rival Park Seung-hi crashed out of the 500 metres final with her.

Arriving at the British Olympic Association’s athlete convention on Friday, however - held at the Oriam complex just along the road from her home town of Livingston - was a young woman who had, not once, not twice, but thrice become a world champion earlier this year, a result of having become a much more robust contender for a variety of reasons.

It took time to recover and come to terms with a spectacular sequence of failures, not to mention that reprehensible over-reaction which included death threats. Lessons included the need to recruit the help of a sports psychologist, while the warmth of the reception subsequently received in speed skating-daft Korea helped her understand the distortive perils of social media, which she intends to turn off during next year’s Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, if only to ensure she is not exposed to any copycats who might seek to unsettle a clear and present danger to the local favourites. However she has clearly also benefited from the blossoming of two relationships within the sport.

One is her friendship with Charlotte Gilmartin, the Great Britain team-mate who is first to admit she scraped into the team for Sochi, her principal task at the time becoming that of a room-mate who could provide a shoulder to cry on and the right consoling words.

“She was the picker-upper,” is Christie’s description. “It was good because she was the person I was probably closest to, she knew me best and knew the sport at the same time. So she did help pick me up a lot. There have been many occasions when that has happened.”

Gilmartin has been rewarded for being a good team-mate by becoming a European champion in her own right and intends to contribute differently in Korea.

“This time around I’m hoping that on the basis of the last couple of seasons I can get onto the medal tally and bring some home. I’m going more now to perform and join Elise at the top,” said the 27-year-old.

Taken in isolation those words might be interpreted as a challenge to the champion, but sitting together it was evident that they see themselves as working co-operatively.

“We do group together and work together well,” said Gilmartin. “Mine and Elise’s strengths are very opposite. I’m more of a tactical racer, leave everything to the last minute and go for a big move. Elise likes to be out in front charging her way through. From a training point of view that works well, me racing and pushing her to make moves. It used to be a rule that you couldn’t team skate and that’s not the case anymore. We’ve definitely worked together. One of us will get told if this person tries to do something it’s your duty to go after them, don’t let them get away and make sure Elise is safe and she has done the same for me at the Europeans.”

Of course the best is brought out of competitors by working with those better than they are and that is where Christie has benefited from the involvement in her personal life of Shaolin Liu, one of the men with whom she regularly trains.

“I do like when I beat the boys,” Christie laughed, before admitting that to date he is not among those she has got the better of on the ice. “My boyfriend’s a previous world champion and I always want to beat him, so I get off sessions and my strength and conditioning coach will say that was great, you beat this person, that person, skated faster than the world record and I’m saying ‘I didn’t beat Shaolin.’ I’ve still not beaten him to this day. Until I beat him I will not be satisfied,” then a pause accompanied by an assured smile: “A gold medal might make up for it.”