Chemmy Alcott

At 19 years of age, Alcott was ranked in the Top 10 in the world for her age group, while also rising from 683rd to 126th in the downhill rankings over the course of the season.[6][17]

Her Olympic debut[18] followed in Salt Lake City, Utah. She competed in all of the Alpine disciplines with a best result of 14th position in the combined event.[19]

Later in the season, Alcott returned to the Junior World Championships, finishing in 4th place based on overall championship points (ahead of Lindsey Vonn).[20] In her final British Junior Championships, Alcott won all the titles on offer. She also won British Senior tiles in the giant slalom, super-G and Downhill – claiming the Overall Senior crown for the first time.[21]

In March 2003, Alcott scored her first World Cup points by finishing 27th in a GS event in Innsbruck, Austria.[22]

At the British National Championships in Tignes, France, Alcott won the slalom title for the first time on her way to a clean sweep of all the discipline titles.[23]

Throughout the 2004 World Cup season, Alcott consistently finished in the top-30, including an 11th-place finish in the Lake Louise super G – less than 1.5 seconds behind Renate Goetschl's winning time.[24]

In January 2004, Alcott achieved her first top-10 result, a 9th-place finish in the Cortina downhill.[25] It was the best result by a British woman for more than 30 years, after Gina Hathorn's 9th-place finish in a Slalom at Heavenly Valley in March 1972.[26]

However, a knee ligament injury meant that Alcott was unable to defend her British titles.[5][27]

At the 2005 World Championships (Santa Caterina, Italy), Alcott finished 19th in the downhill, 22nd in the super-G and 35th in the giant slalom.

At the British National Championships (Meribel, France), Alcott again won the downhill, super-G, and Slalom), also winning the Victrix Ludorum trophy for the Overall Championship for the third time.[28]

The Torino Winter Olympic Games saw Alcott finish 11th in the downhill, the best Olympic performance by a British female skier since 1968.[6] Alcott was however disqualified from the combined event following the first run of the slalom, where her skis were found to be 0.2 mm narrower than the FIS regulations allowed.[29] She recorded 19th and 22nd-place finishes in the super-G and giant slalom events, respectively.

In the World Cup, Alcott achieved seven top-30 results, with a best finish of 12th place in the super-G at Bad Kleinkirchheim, Austria.[30]

In a weather-disrupted British Championships (Meribel, France), Alcott won the slalom and giant slalom titles. The super-G was cancelled due to adverse weather conditions, as was the Senior downhill. However, it was decided to award the Senior downhill title using the results of the previous day's Junior race, in which Alcott did not compete. This meant that Katrina Head pipped her to the Overall British title, ending Alcott's stranglehold on the Victrix Ludorum trophy.[31]

A few weeks after the Olympics, Alcott's mother Eve died suddenly, and consequently Alcott decided to take some time away from the sport.[32]

During her break from racing, Alcott underwent surgery on her feet to remove the bunionettes that had been troubling her for years. Alcott's recovery period was extended by two months to five months following a fall during rehabilitation where she re-broke her left foot.[32]

Alcott began the 2007 season with two 13th-place finishes in the first two downhills of the season at Lake Louise and an 11th-place finish in the super-G at the Canadian resort.[33] This was followed by a 7th-place finish in the next event in Reiteralm, Austria, in a Super combined competition,[34] the best result of her career to date. Alcott also finished 9th in the Tarvisio Downhill and had four top-20 results in Giant slalom, qualifying Alcott for her first World Cup Finals (Lenzerheide, Switzerland), where she placed 15th in the giant slalom.[35]

At the British Alpine Championships in Meribel, Alcott won all four titles on offer: the downhill, super G, giant slalom, and slalom events.

Alcott had a relatively poor 2008 World Cup season, except for 16th and 17th-place finishes in the downhill and super combined events at St. Anton and a 16th-place finish in the GS race in Maribor, Slovenia.[36]

At the British Championships in Meribel, France, Alcott won the downhill, super-G, giant slalom, and slalom titles. She also finished second to 19-year-old Louise Thomas in the super combined.[37] The Championships also saw Alcott take the Overall title for the fifth time.

Alcott finished 10th in the opening giant slalom of the season in Sölden, Austria. However, she broke her ankle during training for the next race in Canada, resulting in three months on the sidelines.[38] On her return to action, Alcott finished 15th in the GS at Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, and then 21st in the super-G at Garmisch the following weekend.

At the 2009 World Championships, Alcott finished 21st in the-super G. In the following event, the super combined, Alcott had to restart her downhill run after approximately one minute due to a fall by the previous competitor, Frida Hansdotter. On her re-reun, she finished 13th on her way to 19th overall.[39][40] In the actual Downhill race, Alcott finished 15th,[41][42] whilst she finished 29th in the giant slalom – the result of a fall during the second run.[43][44]

Alcott won all five races at the British National Championships (Meribel, France), downhill, super-G, giant slalom, slalom, and super combined titles.[45]

Alcott sustained a double fracture of her right leg when she crashed training for the World Cup downhill race at Lake Louise, Canada, on 2 December 2010, and consequently missed the entire 2011 skiing season.[46]

In Winter/Spring 2012, Alcott competed in ITV1's Dancing on Ice alongside professional skater Sean Rice. They finished fifth place in the competition and were eliminated on 11 March 2012.

Alcott promotes a Brighton-based school travel company.

In February, Alcott beat Graham Bell in a head-to-head slalom race filmed for BBC's Ski Sunday.[47] In November Chemmy Alcott was interviewed by The Telegraph about her views on the gender gap in skiing and why so few women go skiing.[48]

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