Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
Local skier hopes to carve trail at Olympics
Athlete is SA’s only contender for Winter Games
LOCAL Alpine skier Connor Wilson is hoping that his participation at the Olympic Winter Games will inspire more South Africans to take up winter sports.
He is the only athlete to represent South Africa at the Winter Games, in Pyeongchang, South Korea, which kicked off yesterday.
Wilson, 21, who competes for the SA Active Club, will take part in the Alpine Skiing slalom/giant slalom event.
“Hopefully, my participation in these games will encourage the growth of winter sport in southern Africa so that more South Africans will be at the next Winter Olympics in Beijing in 2022,” Wilson said.
At the end of last year, Wilson was ranked 54th in the world in the giant slalom and 71st in the slalom event. Two South African athletes qualified for the one available Alpine Skiing slot at this year’s Winter Olympics.
However, the South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee selected Wilson because of his world ranking, which was superior to his counterpart, Sive Speelman.
Speelman missed out on the chance of becoming South Africa’s first black alpine skier to compete at the Olympics.
However, the Eastern Cape skier will attend this month’s Winter Games as team South Africa’s technical official, together with Wilson’s coach, Peter Pilz.
Ninety- two nations will compete at this year’s Winter Olympics and 102 events will take place, spread over seven sports (which means 15 disciplines altogether).
Wilson, who moved to the US last year and is studying pre-veterinary science at the University of Vermont, is “extremely excited” to compete at his first Winter Olympic Games.
“My first Olympic start will be highly significant, as it is likely the most important race that I will ever undertake,” he said.
“It’s a tremendous honour to have been selected to participate in the Winter Olympics since very few athletes are fortunate enough to be given this opportunity.
“I’m sure that I will cherish this moment for many years to come.
“For me, there’s a bit more pressure than usual because this is the Olympics and it will be the most skilled field of competitors I’ve ever had to face.”
While Wilson is South Africa’s only hope for a medal at the Winter Games, the Joburg skier doesn’t feel pressure to deliver one.
“Realistically, it’s difficult for South Africans to place among the top three given the extremely limited amount of time we have on snow, but I’m definitely going to try,” he said. “My aim is to put in a solid performance and to inspire others.”
Wilson’s main focus is on finishing all of his runs and achieving a time as close to the lead as possible.
“I’m hoping to show all our young skiers that South Africans can successfully compete on the world stage even in winter sports and that, if they work hard and have passion for the sport, they too can become Olympians.
“This past month was my hardest ever with 10 races in 30 days from mid-December to mid-January, as I was determined to qualify for my second discipline, giant slalom, prior to the Olympic qualification cut-off.
“Each race brought down my points a bit more until I finally succeeded in getting there.
“It was a huge personal achievement for me.”
Speaking about his passion for skiing, Wilson said he fell in love with the sport when he was just 5 years old.
“I first began skiing around age 5 when we visited my grandmother in the US over the Christmas holidays, but I only started racing when I was 15 and briefly living in America.
“My school there for two years offered skiing as a winter sport and I just loved it.
“Since then, my training up until last year consisted primarily of spending the August school holidays at Afriski Resort in Lesotho and the December school holidays at training camps in Europe.”