SLIP-SLIDING AWEH
SA’s only Olympian hits the slopes
● Connor Wilson got his first taste of Alpine skiing while visiting his grandmother in the US when he was five years old.
Today the former St John’s College pupil will take on the world’s best when he competes in the giant slalom event at the 2018 Olympic Winter Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea.
Wilson, 21, is the only South African taking part in the Olympics.
“I want developing skiers in South Africa to see that coming from a country that doesn’t have snow most of the year or fancy training facilities doesn’t mean you can’t compete in competitions such as the Olympics,” Wilson told the Sunday Times in a phone interview this week.
“I want people to understand that the Olympics is a possibility if you put in the work and I think that’s really important for South African skiers because they think: ‘Where am I going in this sport? What am I going to achieve?’ ”
Alpine skiing wasn’t Wilson’s first passion. He excelled in hockey at school and received his provincial colours for showjumping, a sport in which he represented South Africa at the All African Mauritian Friendship Cup in 2015. But when navicular syndrome, an arthritis-like disease, struck his horse, he decided to focus on skiing.
Wilson recalls visiting his grandmother in Washington, DC each year when he was younger.
“After we visited her we would go to Sun Valley in Idaho and ski there for maybe a week before returning to South Africa. We did that for a couple of years,” he said.
In 2011, when his grandmother was diagnosed with cancer, the family moved to the US to be with her and Wilson joined the school ski team.
The family moved back to South Africa two years later and he finished school at St John’s College in Johannesburg. After matric he attended a ski academy in the US where he honed his skills.
Wilson is now in his first year at the University of Vermont studying veterinary science.
“When I heard I was going to the Olympics, I decided to drop three of my classes. That’s allowed me to keep up with the course load [and] opened me up to a lot more opportunity to train.”
Over the past two years, Wilson has regularly visited South Africa’s ski resort Tiffindell, near Barkly East, and Afriski in Lesotho.
“I train at Afriski about three weeks a year and then I go over to Tiffindell for the international races.
“I’m proud to represent South Africa. I was born there and that’s where I’ve spent most of my life. It makes me really proud that I’ve finally made it to the Olympics.”
He said the sport could be dangerous and chances of injury were high.
“There are a lot of factors in play. There’s bad weather a lot of the time, snow conditions can be difficult. You always have to be focused on what you’re doing.”
He was accompanied to the Olympics by his coach, Cedric Maret, the president of Snow Sports South Africa, Peter Pilz, and a technical official, Sive Speelman.
Speelman had also qualified for the Olympics, but South Africa was allocated only one spot at this year’s Games.
Wilson will also compete in the slalom on Thursday. He said he was nervous but confident and believed he could achieve a “favourable result”.
South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee president Gideon Sam said: “We wish Connor all the best and I’m sure that Sive Speelman is going to gain a wealth of experience.”
I want developing skiers in South Africa to see that coming from a country that doesn’t have snow most of the year or fancy training facilities doesn’t mean you can’t compete in competitions such as the Olympics Connor Wilson