Britain’s dry slope ‘Rocket’ targets Olympic history

PYEONGCHANG: Britain’s Dave ‘Rocket’ Ryding didn’t start ski race training on snow until he was 21, honing his technique instead on dry slopes in the north of England and content with the family’s annual ski holiday.

Ten years on, he has worked his way into contention to possibly win a first Olympic alpine skiing medal for his country in Thursday’s men’s slalom in Pyeongchang.

Compatriot Alain Baxter won slalom bronze in Salt Lake City Games in 2002, only to be stripped of the medal for failing a drugs test.

Ryding equalled Britain’s bestever World Cup finish in January 2017 when he finished runner-up in the Kitzbuehel slalom, matching Konrad Bartelski’s second place in Val Gardena in 1981.

But while Bartelski’s result came as a surprise, Ryding’s did not.

Last season he achieved five top-10 slalom finishes and this season has six.

“In terms of the guys in the World Cup, I am unique as the only one who wasn’t brought up on snow,” said Ryding, who placed 17th at the 2014 Sochi Games and 27th in Vancouver four years earlier.

“No one else started on a dry slope and skied there until they were 20, so it’s definitely a story different to anyone else.”

A career born on an artificial slope in the town of Pendle, in the northwest of England, has not gone unnoticed by his rivals, who from a young age spent many more hours skiing on real snow on their doorsteps.

When Ryding came second behind Marcel Hirscher in Kitzbuehel, the Austrian — gunning for a third Pyeongchang gold in the slalom after winning the combined and giant slalom — said it was “amazing to have a new face on the podium.”

Former British Olympic skier Graham Bell agreed Ryding’s dry slope background had given him a wealth of “technical skills, race experience and mental strength.”

Talking to the Daily Telegraph newspaper, Bell added: “Until Ryding, all successful British alpine ski racers either grew up in Scotland, like Alain Baxter, went to school in the Alps, like my brother Martin or, had the use of a flat in a ski resort, like Chemmy Allcott.”

Hirscher, a six-time overall World Cup champion, and Norwegian Henrik Kristoffersen will be favourites in Thursday’s race, but Ryding has not counted himself out.