Latest news with #AlpineSkiing
Yahoo
26-06-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Swiss skier Lara Gut-Behrami retiring after upcoming Olympic season
FILE - Switzerland's Lara Gut Behrami holds the trophy for the alpine ski, women's World Cup super-G discipline, in Saalbach, Austria, March 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Alessandro Trovati, file) ZURICH (AP) — Two-time overall World Cup champion Lara Gut-Behrami intends on retiring after the upcoming Olympic season. The Swiss skier revealed her plans at a sponsor's event in Zurich. The 34-year-old Gut-Behrami said she wants to move to London next year to join her husband, former Switzerland international Valon Behrami, who she said was taking over as sporting director at English soccer club Watford. Advertisement 'I certainly won't be a cleaning lady,' Gut-Behrami said this week, while hinting she would like to become a mother. Gut-Behrami won her overall titles in 2015-16 and 2023-24 and has 48 World Cup victories — good for fifth on the all-time women's list. She also won gold in super-G and bronze in giant slalom at the 2022 Beijing Olympics, plus a bronze in downhill at the 2014 Sochi Games. One of Gut-Behrami's best performances came at the 2021 world championships in Cortina d'Ampezzo, where she swept gold in super-G and giant slalom and took bronze in downhill. Cortina will host women's skiing in the Winter Games in February, which would be Gut-Behrami's fourth Olympics. She missed the 2010 Vancouver Games due to injury. Gut-Behrami made her World Cup debut at age 16 in 2007. ___ AP skiing:
The National
25-06-2025
- Sport
- The National
Lebanese skier Manon Ouaiss wants to see more Arab athletes alongside her at Winter Olympics
When she was three years old, Manon Ouaiss' parents put her on skis on the slopes of Kfardebian, not knowing that 18 years later she would be representing Lebanon in Alpine skiing at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics. Growing up in Beirut in a family with four brothers – her twin and three older ones – Ouaiss developed a passion for skiing and the outdoors from a very young age. 'We love the outdoors. We respect and honour the nature and the mountains as much as we can,' Ouaiss told The National from her base in the French Alps, where she is preparing for the 2026 Milano-Cortina Olympics. While the Ouaiss clan share a love for sport and nature, Manon is the only family member to emerge as a competitive skier. She laughs when she talks about her siblings. 'When you get to know me a bit more, you understand, you can feel that I grew up in that kind of family,' said the 24-year-old. 'They gave me such a true personality, to keep up with that much testosterone at home.' Ouaiss recalls having 'the best memories ever' honing her craft at Mzaar ski resort in Kfardebian, which is less than an hour east of Beirut. 'I cultivated my passion there. And we often brag to our foreign friends that you can ski and swim on the same day in Lebanon,' she says. Ouaiss' career kicked off with winning domestic cups, which helped her climb the national rankings. The ski season is short in Lebanon, so she started to travel abroad for camps. Five years ago, she approached the Orsatus Ski Racing team in France to see if she could train with them in Brides-les-Bains, a small village near Les Trois Vallees, home to famous resorts like Meribel and Courchevel. The team welcomed her, and she believes joining them helped her take her skiing 'to the next level'. 'What's interesting about sports and to a greater extent competition is that all the values you acquire, whether it's discipline, emotion management, resiliency, they translate into every aspect of your life,' Ouaiss explained. 'So I was really able to improve all the resources you need to be a good athlete, which are like mental, physical, technical, tactical, as well. So, yeah, that's why my team is very interesting here in France, because they have a very 360-degree approach to skiing and to sports in general.' As she gets ready to head to her second Olympics in February 2026, Ouaiss is able to dedicate herself fully to skiing. When she competed in the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, she was working as an apprentice in a business law firm and studying law at a university in Paris. 'I've learnt that you can't make it with just your own will, you know, solely,' she said, reflecting on her Olympic experience. 'I remember, a very fun fact from the Olympics, I was alone with my coach and every single team there had their physiotherapist, mental prep, physical prep. They had a whole team around them. Even a serviceman, a technician, to tune and wax the skis. 'And it was me, myself and I, and my coach ... So, yeah, when you feel pain in your knee, you just Google it. 'Growing up in Lebanon and being a Lebanese athlete, you have to cope with these kinds of obstacles.' That's not to say it was not a great experience. Ouaiss took part in the slalom and giant slalom events – landing in the middle of the field in the former and not finishing in the latter. 'From a sporting perspective, the Olympics is just the ultimate goal for any athlete around the world, I believe,' she said. 'And the experience on a human level, it was such an exceptional experience because there's this thing about the Olympics that's very specific and unique, and that is the national dimension. 'You feel like there's a whole country behind you, supporting you. And raising the flag high on the world stage is a mission I take very seriously and with great pride and responsibility, of course.' After the Games, Ouaiss was forced to take two years off from skiing. She moved to Dubai and started working and didn't race between February 2023 and December 2024. To fill the void, she took up Muay Thai – training from 8pm to 11pm after work every day – and won a bronze medal at the World 2024 Muay Thai Championships after only one year of training. She says stepping away from skiing during that time was 'very difficult'. 'But honestly, I had no other choice,' she added. 'I had to work a bit, and also do some admin and logistics work to find a sponsor. And when I did so, I got back to it. 'Sometimes in Lebanon, unfortunately, like it's the love of my life, I'm super attached to Lebanon, really very patriotic, but I feel like there's kind of a culture of shame when you're a full-time athlete. 'People are like, 'Oh, what are you doing now? Skiing. Oh, but what's your real job?' 'You know, people are like, 'Oh, you do only skiing?' You feel like they're a bit judgy about it. So it was difficult to deal with the social pressure in general.' By the end of 2024, Ouaiss was able to find a sponsor – CMA CGM, a global shipping and logistics group – to back her through her qualification campaign and the 2026 Olympics, which has allowed her to quit her job, return to skiing, and settle in Brides-les-Bains full-time until the Games. Skiers race against the clock, but it's the varying elements and conditions that pose the biggest challenge. 'The slope is constantly changing depending on the race and the competition and the event, the snow conditions, whether it's hard, injected, or a bit more like soft and natural snow. It's a completely, like almost a different sport, you know, a different game,' she explained. 'There are so many changing components every single race. It's very stimulating. It's fun, but it's also, you know, in French, we say 'ingrat', which means ungrateful,' she says of the unforgiving nature of the sport. 'Every single moment and second in skiing changes everything. Because it's very intense. It lasts, let's say, between 50 seconds and 1:10 maximum every run. And on a tiny mistake, you can just DNF, or a medal can slip away.' Ouaiss hopes to inspire others back home with her performances. While the recreational ski scene is vibrant in Lebanon, Ouaiss admits the competitive skiing environment needs a boost. 'That's what I aim to do. I really try to contribute to a better level in Lebanon,' she said. 'And I really want us to be more ambitious because we kind of have this culture in Lebanon of, it's great to participate and to raise the Lebanese flag on the world stage, etc. But I feel like we could be more competitive, aim for medals, and so on.' Ouaiss grew up listening to stories of athletes who beat the odds and made it to the very top despite coming from the toughest of circumstances. She feels such scenarios are getting harder to imagine and that nothing can replace proper backing, structure, and financial support. 'There are no more fairytales,' she asserts. 'We need funding. We need specific resources to make it. So this is a call to action.' Another hope she has is to be joined by other Arab female athletes at the 2026 Olympics. In Beijing, Ouaiss was the only woman representing the Mena region. 'I felt like I was the ambassador of the Arab countries there,' she said. 'I hope it won't be the same for the next Olympics .' Ouaiss is a big fan of tennis world No 1 Jannik Sinner, who started off as an alpine skier before taking the ATP by storm and becoming a three-time Grand Slam champion. She admires his versatility and describes him as a 'real athlete' – words that most definitely one can use to describe Ouaiss herself. During her Muay Thai journey, Ouaiss didn't just win a medal at the World Championships, she was also chosen to be on the Muay Thai demonstration team that took part in some exhibition bouts during the Paris 2024 Olympics. Ouaiss won her clash against her Spanish opponent in the French capital and has set herself some lofty targets after the Winter Games in Cortina. Since Muay Thai is not officially an Olympic discipline, Ouaiss says she wants to switch to boxing, in hopes of qualifying for the LA 2028 Olympics. 'It's interesting to join this very exclusive club because I think fewer than 150 athletes in the history of the Olympics have competed in both summer and winter Olympics. So this could be cool,' she said. 'I have many ambitions. I'll finish with skiing, one step at a time, and we'll keep in touch.'
BBC News
17-06-2025
- Sport
- BBC News
Struggle of ski siblings aiming to follow Olympic ace Ryding
The ladle and the monkey wrench are not the usual tools of choice for Alpine ski racers hoping to follow in the tracks of Olympian Dave Ryding, but for the Holmes siblings, they are a stark Lancashire pair dream of following Ryding, often billed as Britain's greatest skier, into Olympic and World Cup glory, after the 38-year-old announced he will retire at the end of next rise to the top began at Pendle Ski Club, which has also fired the imagination, and honed the raw ability, of 22-year-old Robert Holmes and his sister Charlotte, who hail from Barrowford, just eight miles down the road from the dry swansong will be his fifth Winter Olympics appearance, adding to his World Cup slalom gold and victory in the 2013 Europa Cup Slalom Series, which made him the first British skier ever to achieve the Holmes' are at the other end of their careers, but simply trying to compete on a level playing field with athletes from the sport's European powerhouses has meant extraordinary sacrifices, with both working all the hours they can squeeze in during the summer simply to keep their heads above the competitive told BBC Radio Lancashire of their day-to-day struggle simply to scrimp together the funds to finance their bid to progress."Charlotte and I have both got part-time jobs over the summer," he said. "Charlotte is doing an awful lot of the work at the moment and I've had numerous different roles - plumbing, kitchen work etc."Over the summer we try to earn as much money to go into the winter, but we find it goes incredibly quickly." Charlotte revealed how, in a typical week, she crammed in 45 hours of toil in a kitchen alongside her 20 hours of physical training, a necessity for both if they are to hit next season in the right aims to be the first female racer to emulate Ryding, but says the odds are perpetually stacked against British hopefuls."We are 100% self-funded," she says. "Our parents are working full-time and 100% of their income goes towards skiing."It's a very expensive sport and we're spending hundreds of thousands of pounds on it. A pair of ski boots costs over a thousand pounds, a race entry is £50 plus the lift ticket, another £50."There are so many costs a normal person would never even think of. Even insurance and flights, training costs, race entries, any expenses, we have to cover."If you hear you're on a national team for your sport you would think 'Oh, they're in a training group, they have their coaches, they do everything with their national team', but that's not it at all."Since we were 13 and first raced for GB internationally, we have been training with private teams and everything is self-funded. "You have to go through an academy and find coaches, there is no national team pathway involved, in comparison to something like British Cycling, who have very good pathways at the minute."Robert added: "To take the next step we need support to do different things, to go to different race series and train more professionally over the summer because, realistically, doing 45 hours in a kitchen or plumbing isn't going to make me and Charlotte faster on snow. 'Superhuman' Ryding was an inspiration "We're always looking for some support to be able to move on to the next level. It's a very difficult task to keep improving with limited resources."Ryding has offered the pair advice and support, and they are spurred on by his example - someone who blazed a trail for British skiing by taking on, and occasionally beating, the Austrian, Italian, German and American stars who dominate the said: "We want to do the exact same. There's been no female World Cup winner that's from Great Britain, so I think that is something I'd really like to do, to be the first and do what he's done."He's worked so damned hard for so many years. He's been in the sport for over 20 years and it just shows how far hard work will go. We're not scared of hard work either."Robert still finds Ryding inspiring as he makes his own way on the slopes. He explained: "When I was a kid I used to idolise him and think he was some superhuman, skiing these incredibly difficult hills. "Now I've got to know him over these last few years, he's just a very down-to-earth guy and you would never think he's a top-level athlete."You can speak to him openly about the struggles and get advice. Without his journey and what he's achieved on his way to the top I don't think me and Charlotte would be here right now."
Associated Press
13-06-2025
- Business
- Associated Press
World Cup skiers promised at least 10% rise in race prize money next season
United States' Mikaela Shiffrin reacts on the podium after winning the women's slalom at the World Cup Finals, Thursday, March 27, 2025, in Sun Valley, Idaho. (AP Photo/John Locher, File) Updated [hour]:[minute] [AMPM] [timezone], [monthFull] [day], [year] GENEVA (AP) — Prize money across all World Cup disciplines will increase by at least 10% next season, the International Ski and Snowboard Federation (FIS) said Friday. Superstars in Alpine skiing earn the most — Mikaela Shiffrin and Marco Odermatt each made a record $1 million in race prize money in the 2023 season — but top racers in ski cross and snowboard disciplines typically earn less than 100,000 Swiss francs ($123,000) for the winter. 'It is clear that we still have a lot to do when it comes to rewarding our athletes as they deserve,' FIS President Johan Eliasch said in a statement. FIS said it will guarantee a 10% increase and hopes that race organizers add an extra 10% 'on a voluntary basis.' 'This is an important step, but only another one in a long way ahead,' Eliasch said. In ski jumping, Daniel Tschofenig topped the men's prize money list last season with 372,550 Swiss francs ($459,000), and women's leader Nika Prevc earned almost 130,000 Swiss francs ($160,000). The most lucrative venue is storied Austrian resort Kitzbuehel which had a total prize fund last season of 1 million euros ($1.15 million) across a three-race weekend for men. ___ AP skiing:
The Independent
12-06-2025
- Sport
- The Independent
‘More than I dreamed of': Britain's most decorated Alpine skier Dave Ryding reflects on a groundbreaking career
A stalwart of the Alpine skiing World Cup, it's strange to imagine the elite circuit without Dave Ryding. But at the end of the 2025-26 season, the veteran Englishman will hang up his skis. He'll be 39 then – although if the previous season is anything to go by, still able to teach his younger competitors a thing or two. 'It was quite a natural decision to make,' he tells The Independent, ahead of today's official announcement. 'It's just important that I'm still in a position to compete, because I've never done this sport for anything other than results, to prove myself, to achieve goals, to dedicate myself to something. I mean, I'm a ski racer, not a footballer – it could never be about finances! 'It was always about competing with the best, proving myself week in, week out, and showing the nation that it was possible, from the UK, to have a career in the top 15 like mine, going into its 10th year. No one's ever come close to doing that.' He notes that in recent years the sacrifices to be a professional athlete have only increased, with his wife and three-year-old daughter left at home over the winter. Ryding says, 'It's very much the right time – right to me and justifiable to my wife! It was nice to think, right, let's draw a line there and just go absolutely all in again, and then come the [Winter] Olympics, try and do my best ever performance.' Ryding credits his passion for the sport and 'never-wavering commitment' – as well as 'Northern grit' – as reasons behind his longevity: ten straight seasons on the World Cup, with his debut on the circuit in 2009. He adds that it takes a village to support a professional athlete, from coaches, to sponsors, to his family. 'A lot of the time you're in a dark place as an athlete, it's not all sunshine and roses. But to have those people behind you, particularly my wife, that's been one of the key things.' He took a different path to the sport than the likes of his Austrian and Swiss competitors, growing up racing on dry slopes, and only cracking the World Cup circuit at 28. He laughs at the memory of when he first started out, when he was ranked 18th out of 20 British skiers born in 1986. But his strong racing background served him well when he finally made the switch to snow. At the Kitzbuhel World Cup in 2017, when he led after the first run, he says, 'I had a flashback from the very first dry slope race. I had the same emotions going through my body of anxiety, pressures, excitement, as what I felt when I was 16, 17, years old on the dry slopes. 100% there's been an advantage of having so much competition in the UK.' That proved a memorable day for the 38-year-old: his first World Cup podium, a second place, with his tally now up to seven. That includes his historic win in Kitzbuhel five years later, when he became the first – and so far only – Briton to win an Alpine skiing World Cup. That win is, for obvious reasons, the highlight of his career. 'Not just because I won it, but it also showed the persistence [required], because I was the oldest-ever first time winner of any World Cup, oldest-ever winner of a slalom, never mind the first Brit. To tick that box was more than what I dreamed of as a kid. I just wanted to be in the top 30 so I could compete in second runs and be on television! Never did I imagine that I would be in a position to win.' A close second was his sixth-place finish at the World Championships this February, the best result for a British male skier since 1934. After an error in his ski set-up on the first run, Ryding – on adjusted skis – took the lead on his second. 'I was like, you know what, if this is the last World Champs, if this is the last time I have a green light [as the race leader], then I'm going to really enjoy it and savour it. I probably went over the top, dancing in the leader's enclosure! But I will remember that moment forever. It was one of my best days on snow.' Ryding will aim to approach his final season with the same attitude. He says, 'As an athlete, the blinkers are on and you're not looking at anything other than what you're doing. I hope that knowing that this is the last time, I will try and savour the moments everywhere I go.' The hunger and the drive to improve is still there. 'Last year, I really felt like I'd left something on the table with only having a ninth in a major event [his previous best at the World Championships]. I felt like that's not a true replication of my ability. I was really keen to better that, and that's the same sort of approach I will try to bring to this season.' Ryding doesn't yet have concrete plans for his life post-retirement; he and wife Mandy ran a cafe until daughter Nina was born, and a move into business could be on the cards, while he is likely to continue in his mentoring role for Tignes-based club Apex 2100. But for now, family comes first – 'until the moment comes my wife wants to kick me out of the house because I'm so annoying when I'm always at home!' he jokes. Ryding is enthusiastic about the future of Alpine skiing in Britain: alongside World Cup teammates Laurie Taylor and Billy Major, he says, there are plenty of younger athletes who could take the sport to greater heights. 'I'm listening to the next generation and the generation after that, because I'm so old and they're already coming through, they talk about podiums, about winning. It's something that was never spoken about when I was young,' he says. 'The biggest thing I've seen over the last 10 years is the sense of belief from the Brits that are coming through, and I think that will just open up more achievements. 'I remember banging my head against a brick wall trying to get that win. I really felt like it was there, I'd been winning halfway down second runs, three quarters down, and then made little mistakes, and I never got it done. But once I got that, smashed through that sort of ceiling, then I think it opened people's minds to like, 'this is actually achievable – and Dave came from a dry slope and was rubbish when he was 17!'' Ryding will forever have a place in the history books as Britain's first Alpine World Cup winner, although he hopes athletes to come can go 'above and beyond' his achievements. What Ryding would like to be remembered is the commitment that underpinned his career. 'I think if it shows younger kids the dedication it needs… no matter what you do in life, you can go out there and achieve it. Whether you're a journalist or a doctor or a lawyer, or a ski racer, the application to a task over a long period of time consistently, will allow you to achieve some things that you never thought possible,' he says.
