When I was reading the first article about alpine monoskiing at the age of five, I would never have thought what kind of importance sport would attain in my life.

Although the first steps on my monoski were rather hard, it instantly fascinated me. In the course of the years I gained an awesome feeling of freedom while racing down the mountains on my ski.

The feeling of speed and independence makes it impossible for me to imagine a life without sport. I am far more well-balanced and much stronger mentally, I enjoy life, grow with the challenges and have gained many new friends worldwide.

Paralympic high performance sport requires an organisation of one's private and everyday life around the sport. It's not always easy to reconcile school, sport and private life.

As a pupil it has been working out quite well – due to the support of my family, the German Paralympic promoting programs for youth and my sponsors.

When I won the Junior Athlete of the Year award last week I got the great chance to reconcile my plans to study law with high performance sport.

Along with the honour, the award grants a financial scholarship enabling me to study and do high performance sports over the coming years.

That further facilitates my decision to keep on doing sport, since I can already manage how my life might look afterwards. That is a big motivation for me to reach even more in my career.

Winning a medal at the Paralympic Games in Vancouver this year was the fantastic highlight of my sport career so far. I definitely want to repeat this experience - preferably at Paralympic Games in my home country in 2018.

Then I'll be 25 years old which is a good age to hunt for further medals at Paralympic Games. Competitions in front of a home audience are highlights in every athlete's career and I would have the great chance to experience the queen of all competitions – Olympic and Paralympic Games – in my home country.

Thousands of fans cheering with black, red and gold flags, seeing the top time on display after crossing the finishing line, hearing the German anthem after getting the medal and experiencing all that in front of a uniquely winter sport enthusiastic audience in Germany – how thrilling is that!

Until then I will do everything to collect as much racing experience and medals as possible. A medal at the world championship in Sestriere in the upcoming season is supposed to be nothing but the beginning. In 2018 I want to be able to call upon my absolute top performance and win a gold medal - hopefully in front of my home audience.

Anna Schaffelhuber won bronze at the Vancouver 2010 Paralympics in the Women's Super-G – Sitiing event and is a sport ambassador for the Munich 2018 Games