With seventeen days to go until the start of the 2010 Olympic Winter Games, the British Olympic Association (BOA) have today (26 January) announced the skiers and snowboarders who will take part in the Vancouver, Canada between 12 – 28 February.
The thirteen Snowsport athletes comprise of four skiers, four snowboarders, three cross country skiers and two freestyle skiers.
Alpine Skiing
Chemmy Alcott (27, Twickenham)
Ed Drake (24,
Dave Ryding (23, Leyland, Lancaster)
Andy Noble (25, Edinburgh)
Snowboard
Zoë Gillings (24, Isle of Man) – Snowboard Cross
Lesley McKenna (35, Aviemore) — Halfpipe
Ben Kilner (21, Banchory) – Halfpipe
Adam McLeish (30, Quebec, Canada) – Parallel Giant Slalom
Cross Country Skiing
Andrew Musgrave (19, Insch, Aberdeenshire)
Andrew Young (17, Huntly, Aberdeenshire)
Fiona Hughes (19, Huddersfield)
Freestyle Skiing
Sarah Ainsworth (24, Brentwood) – Aerials
Ellie Koyander (18, Chesterfield) — Moguls
Oliver Jones, Chairman of the British Ski and Snowboard Federation, commented “I would like to congratulate our athletes on their selection to Team GB. They have all worked incredibly hard since Turin to achieve selection and they all deserve their seat on the plane. This will be one of the largest squads we have sent to the Winter Olympics and with nine of the thirteen athletes under the age of 25, it shows the incredible strength, depth and talent within British Snowsports”.
The athletes are currently competing in other international events ahead of the Olympic Winter Games, in advance of moving to the Team GB holding camps.
Chemmy Alcott (Alpine Skiing)
“The Olympic Winter Games are, without doubt, the biggest event in our sport, so it’s a massively exciting prospect for me to be going as part of Team GB. Last time out in Turin four years ago, I came 11th, but this time my aspirations are higher. I don’t just want to break into the top ten – I do believe I’ve got the talent to challenge for a medal, and a gold one would be fantastic!”
“Representing your country is something very, very special. I’ve hugely enjoyed my previous Olympic experiences, but I hope this will be the best of them all.”
Ed Drake (Alpine Skiing)
“It’s an enormous honour to be selected as Team GB, and I feel it’s a reward for a huge amount of hard work that I’ve put into my skiing. The prospect of going to an Olympic Games is a fantastic one for me, and I just can’t wait to get out there. A lot of people have helped me along the way and I hope this is a reward for them as well.”
Andy Noble (Alpine Skiing)
“I’m obviously over the moon about my selection to Team GB. Racing in the Olympics has been my biggest dream and goal since I was young boy watching Alberto Tomba win a handful of Olympic medals in ’88 and ’92. It means so much to me to represent my country in an Olympic Games, and signifies a stepping stone for my career as an athlete”.
“As it’s my first Olympics I hope to compete to my highest level and contend for a top 20 position in the Giant Slalom. I’m not, at the moment, considering medalling in these Games, but I will use the opportunity given to me to perform to my best and use the experience in order to target medals in Sochi 2014, which is when I should be peaking as an athlete”.
Dave Ryding (Alpine Skiing)
“I am over the moon! Going to the Games has been a live long goal of mine, I’ll give 110% to ski well and pull out a good performance. Between now and the Games I’ll be preparing in Europe racing and training until I fly over in February”.
Ben Kilner (Snowboarding)
“I’m delighted to be selected to Team GB, I’ve been competing for a long time now and everything I’ve done has been about building up to these Olympics. I just missed out on selection to the 2006 Winter Olympics but I think in the long run that was a good thing because it gave me more fuel to make it this time”.
“My aim for these Games is to finish in the top 20. I can then think about aiming for a podium place at 2014 once I have more experience. It’s great that Lesley will be there too, she has always been a great help to me and she has been giving me good advice about what to expect. I can’t wait, it’s so exciting”.
[cont]
“Whatever happens though, I want to help push the sport in Britain. If I get more attention, I’ll use that to encourage more people to try it as it’s very accessible and easy to get started.”
Zoe Gillings (Snowboarding)
“Representing your country really is the ultimate honour, and I make no secret of how much I love being part of Team GB. As an athlete who normally competes on her own, there’s something fantastic about pulling on team kit and joining up with your
“I’m even more excited about going to these Olympics than I was about going to Turin. I’ve been thinking of Vancouver ever since the Closing Ceremony in 2006, and I’m really hopeful of making my country proud. My ambition is to come back with a medal”.
Sarah Ainsworth (Freestyle Skiing)
“I’m really proud to be selected to represent GB in the biggest sporting event in the world and am very excited to be a part of the whole Olympic Games experience”.
“At the games I hope to do two good jumps that get me the best result I can. Realistically this Olympics is mainly about gaining as much experience as I can for the future. As the only British Aerial skier on the World Cup tour I’m really looking forward to being part of a team at the Games and not just any team, the best British athletes from all different disciplines”.
Ellie Koyander (Freestyle Skiing)
“It’s just indescribable how I feel at this moment in time, words cannot explain it. When I look back at all the hard work over the last five years with all my coaching team travelling around the world, it starts to puts into perspective just what an incredible journey it been for us. There’s nothing easy about elite level performance and there have been so many ups and downs, but its all come together year upon year”.
“I have such a long career ahead of me in moguls and I am sure that everything that I take away from the Vancouver Games will really feed into my next 4 year cycle towards Sochi ….in the meantime I am very focused on producing my best at the Games, and my clear target is to make the finals. I am so proud to have been selected to Team GB, it’s an honour that few people have in their life. I am going out to the Olympics to ski my absolute best and I really feel ready!”
Fiona Young (Cross Country Skiing)
“I’m excited about the opportunity to represent my country at the Olympics and I’m really looking forward to competing. I’m only going to take part in one event this time, the 10km freestyle time trial, which is one of the first events at the Games and I’m really looking forward to it”.
[cont]
“I’m only 19 and my teammates on the cross country team are 17 and 19 so we are quite a young team to be selected for the Games. Hopefully we will learn a lot from the experience as well as putting in some good performances and are able to return in four years time even stronger and hopefully in contention for the top positions.
Andrew Musgrave (Cross Country Skiing)
“I’m looking forward to the Games, I think its going to be a good experience and I’m hoping I will learn a lot from it”.
“I’m very excited about being selected, I’m hoping to get a best performance at a major tournament like a World Cup or World Championships, and to try compete against the best in the world”.
Andrew Young (Cross Country Skiing)
“I’m pretty excited although I haven’t really thought much about the selections as I’m at the World Junior Championships just now and I’m trying to focus on each little bit as it happens. I’m racing tomorrow and I’m trying to concentrate on the individual races I’ve got coming up over the next few days. Once I’ve got these Championships out the way then I can start to focus on the Olympics and the upcoming events”.
“I’m entering three events definitely and maybe a fourth but that will be confirmed out there. It will be a different experience to what we are normally used to as we will have a month to focus on the one event whereas normally we have a competition each weekend, and then we travel to the next one on the Monday. We never have a big build up to a race whereas we now have a big build up which does put a little bit more pressure on but it makes it quite exciting as well”.
Mark Tilston (British Alpine Ski Team Head coach)
“Alpine skiing is one of the most fiercely competitive sports in the Olympic Winter Games, and it’s testament to the dedication of our athletes and coaches that we continue to produce
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