Skier Chemmy’s uphill struggle
BRITAIN’S top skier Chemmy Alcott may have to re-mortgage her house to compete in the next Winter Olympics.
Chemmy, ranked tenth in the world, tells me: ‘People assume Olympians get lots of funding because there’s so much excitement surrounding the competition. But I have to raise all my own backing. If I don’t raise £75,000 for coaching, kit and so on, then I simply won’t be able to take part. I need to find a sponsor.’
Chemmy, 29, shares her home in South-west London with her boyfriend, fellow British ski champion Dougie Crawford.
Dougie, five years her junior, supported Chemmy through her ski crash two years ago — she shattered her leg in Canada practising for the Vancouver Games.
Let’s hope Dougie likes Chemmy tanned. ‘We’ve all been sprayed brown to enhance our bodies for the Dancing On Ice tour with Torvill and Dean,’ explains Chemmy, who has been promoting Beaubronz’s latest tanning colour. FAST-FOOD entrepreneur Henry Dimbleby, son of broadcaster David, didn’t waste time taking his newborn daughter on holiday.
Dory was only four weeks old when Henry took his family — wife Jemima and sons George, four and Johnny, two — to Marrakesh. Back in time for the launch of William Sitwell’s History Of Food book at Archer’s wine bar in Soho, Leon founder Henry tells me: ‘I suppose Dory is very young to be jet-setting, but she was no trouble.
‘ She’s named after Dory Previn, who is a great heroine of my singer sister Kate, who’s just released an album of her songs.’