‘I can do it' Barista and World Cup ski champion takes aim at Olympic gold

Dave Ryding says he’s done his job now. By  winning an Alpine World Cup event for the first time in his country’s history , he has brought British skiing in from the cold.

Paul MacInnes

“I’ve always said to the younger generation that it’s possible, just work hard,” he says. “ But I don’t have to say that any more. I don’t have to say it’s doable having never done it. Now I just have to put on the video and say: watch that.”

Ryding’s feat in thrashing through the classic slalom at Kitzbühel in Austria last weekend, on perhaps the most difficult course in the sport, was the best ever by a Briton. It drew worldwide attention – “Ein Brite? Ein Brite!” was the headline in Germany’s Süddeutsche Zeitung – and came 100 years and a day after Sir Arnold Lunn invented the sport of slalom racing on the slopes of Mürren in Switzerland.

There was one more milestone too, however: at the age of 35, Ryding became the oldest winner of a World Cup slalom in history.

“Sitting here right now I have not one part of my body that is aching. I don’t know if that’s a miracle or not,” says Ryding, speaking in the brief window before his next challenge, a flight to Beijing and a fourth Winter Olympics.

“Touch wood, I’ve never had a big injury. I feel healthy. I follow, not a strict diet, but a good diet and I don’t know if this helped, but I didn’t ski much when I was growing, so I didn’t smash my body when it was maturing. Maybe when I stop then the niggles will show more, when the muscles aren’t holding everything together.”