One to watch

BRITAIN’S NO.1 WOMAN SKIER, CHEMMY ALCOTT, DISCUSSES LIFE ON THE SLOPES AND HER INCREDIBLE SUCCESS AT THE 2006 WINTER OLYMPICS When did your career start to take off? I won the children’s Olympics in Germany when I was 11, but was a little too young to realise its significance. At 15, I won silver and bronze at the European Youth Olympics. I remember standing on the podium, seeing the British flag being raised and thinking, “Hmm, I could get used to this”. Many young skiers once picked for the national team abandon school and head to the slopes… As a schoolgirl in Surbiton, London I had to fly out to ski every weekend. I wanted to live my dream and be a professional skier, but I was determined not to let my schooling suffer. I’m the only person in the British Ski Team to have finished their A-levels – and I got four A-grades. What does it take to be Britain’s No.1 female Alpine skier? We train all the time and in the on-season we take part in various championships, including the weekly World Cup races, which give us our world ranking. There’s a lot of travelling involved, I even remember taking my GCSE mock exams in the back of a car as I had to get to a race. I live in England in the off-season and by the slopes in Lofer, Austria during the ski season. I do get two weeks off in mid-April and I get as far away from the mountains as I can. British skiing has come a long way since the days of Eddie the Eagle… When I was little the only time you saw skiing on television was on You’ve Been Framed. We were lucky with the televising of the 2006 Olympics, as it was at a prime viewing time on Sunday afternoons, although I’m sure people initially watched for the dramatic crashes in the Downhill. However, I ended up doing really well and I think perceptions about British skiers have now begun to change. Career highlights? Achieving the Downhill result at the 2006 Olympics – I finished 11th but I was only 0.22 sec off 5th. I don’t set myself statistical goals, though. I just need to remain relaxed and happy, and then the results come in.

ON THE PISTE: CHEMMY’S CV

Chemmy initially set her sights on being a tennis pro. However, she broke her humerus, a bone between the shoulder and elbow, which meant she couldn’t play for 18 months, so she turned to her other passion, skiing. At 11 years old, she was selected for the British Children’s Ski Team, and in 1999 she began to compete for the British Ski Team. She broke her neck at the age of 12 and her back at the age of 18, both in falls while racing. Unperturbed, she has gone on to achieve some of the best British women’s ski results in years, including her 11th place in the 2006 Torino Olympics – and her world ranking is now in the top 30.