
As well as being one of the world's top alpine skiers, Kjetil Jansrud is a passionate football fan.

He started following Liverpool from the age of five -- and took up skiing two years later.

Last season he won two World Cup globes and finished second overall to Marcel Hirscher.

The Norwegian has to manage a back injury which first appeared in 2006 and still causes him pain.

Jansrud's crowning glory was winning the Olympic super-G title at the 2014 Sochi Winter Games.

He described the gold medal as a childhood dream, while a bronze in the downhill at Sochi earned him a signed jersey from his hero Steven Gerrard, the ex-Liverpool footballer.

After a long summer and autumn of training, Jansrud is hoping to enjoy the same level of consistency this season.

The 30-year-old describes the end-of-season World Cup globes as the ultimate accolade for the planet's best skiers.

Jansrud was a latecomer to the slopes, not taking up the sport until the age of seven when his parents relocated from Oslo to near Lillehammer, which hosted the 1994 Winter Olympics.

Injuries have curtailed much of his success -- as well as the back complaint, he suffered a serious knee injury when falling at the 2013 world championships.

Back to his best, he now has his sights set on the overall World Cup title and Liverpool winning the English Premier League.