Chemmy Alcott: queen of the ice
Chemmy Alcott is the current female British number one Alpine skier. She is an all-round racer, competing in the Downhill, Super G, Classic Combined/Super Combined, Giant Slalom and Slalom events. Her real name is Chimene Mary Alcott She was born in Middlesex; Greater London on 10th July 1982.It is said that Chemmy was named after Sophia Loren’s character from a movie called El Cid.She started skiing at the tender age of 18 months! At the age of just three she took part in her 1st race.
She became a member of the “British Junior Alpine team” in 1993 after she won the Etoile D’Or French Village Ski Championship. In 1995 she won the “Sunday times Junior Sportswoman of the Year award”.For her training every year she went to New Zealand every summer between the ages of 11 to 19.At the age of 12 she had an accident where she broke her neck and still has some minor problems regarding that, till date.
Alcott made her FIS race debut in August 1997 in a Giant Slalom event at Coronet Peak, Zealand. She won a silver medal there. In 1998 she returned to Australia winning many championships. The following winter Alcott won Silver (Super G) and Bronze (Giant Slalom) medals at the 1999 European Youth Olympics in Štrbské Pleso, Slovaki.In a Giant Slalom race in Lienz, Austria, she made her world cup debut. At the 2001 Junior World Championships, Alcott finished 8th in the Slalom event on her way to 5th in the overall classification. Her 1st world cup qualification by finishing 27th in a Giant Slalom event in Innsbruck, Austria. Chemmy remained within the top 30 during the years 2003-2004.in the world cup season. One of her other achievements were during the Torino winter games where she finished 11th,(best Olympic performance by any British since 1968);She was also the winner of 4 titles at the British alpine championship. She won the Downhill, Super G, Giant Slalom and Slalom events.
But due to her several injuries, and surgeries her game had to suffer a lot. Many a times she couldn’t participate because of her injuries. During her injury lay-off at the start of the 2008/2009 World Cup season, Alcott joined Matt Chilton in the British Eurosport commentary box as guest commentator for several of the women’s World Cup events. Alcott has previously appeared on Channel 4′s World Cup Skiing programme, with a regular feature called Fit to Ski, in which she demonstrated different exercise techniques.
She was a part of the June 2008 climb of Mount Kilimanjaro along with fellow ski racers Julia Mancuso and Lauren Ross and her boyfriend. She today lives in Hove, Sussex with her boyfriend.