Skiing: Chemmy Alcott's 2009/2010 World Cup Preview

21 October 2009

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The Alpine skiing World Cup season gets underway this weekend in Soelden Austria, and with the Winter Olympics just a few months away, it may prove to be an early indication of who will be challenging for the medals in Vancouver in February.

Twenty seven year old Chemmy Alcott is currently Britain’s only female skiing at World Cup level, and after a tough 2008/2009 she is hoping for bigger things this season. Alcott finished 10th in the opening race last year. 

However she broke her ankle during training for the next race in Canada resulting in three months on the sidelines.

Named after Sophia Loren’s character in the 1961 film El Cid, Alcott started skiing at just 18 months while on a family holiday in Flaine, France, and skied in her first race at the age of three.

She grew up and went to school in Surbiton, Surrey, completing her A-levels at Surbiton High School. Alcott claims that whilst at school she promised herself that if she gained four A grades at A-level, she would concentrate on an Alpine Skiing career.[

At the last Winter Olympics in 2006, Chemmy  finished 11th in the Downhill, the best Olympic performance by a British female skier since the 1968 Winter Olympic Games.

However, Alcott was disqualified from the Combined event following the first run of the Slalom as skis were found to be 0.2mm narrower than the FIS regulations allowed, whilst she finished 19th and 22nd in the Super G and Giant Slalom events respectively.

In this video Chemmy reveals how pre-season training has been going, talks about her injuries, her World Cup ambitions and her Winter Olympic hopes.