Chemmy Alcott

Chimene Mary "Chemmy" Crawford-Alcott OLY[2] (née Alcott; born 10 July 1982)[1] is an English former World Cup alpine ski racer. She competed in all five disciplines: downhill, super G, giant slalom, slalom and combined.[3]

Chemmy Alcott OLY
Alcott at London Youth Games in 2009
Personal information
Full nameChimene Mary Alcott
Nickname(s)Chemmy
Born (1982-07-10) 10 July 1982
Hove, Brighton and Hove,
East Sussex, England, U.K.[1]
ResidenceEngland
Height1.69 m (5 ft 7 in)
WebsiteChemmyAlcott.com
Sport
SportAlpine skiing
ClubCDC Performance
RetiredMarch 2014
Medal record
Women's Alpine skiing
Representing United Kingdom
Senior British National Alpine Ski Championship Titles
2009, 2008, 2007, 2005, 2003, 2002, 1999 Overall
2009, 2008, 2007, 2005, 2003, 2002 Downhill
2009, 2008, 2007, 2003, 2002, 2001 Super G
2009, 2007, 2005, 2003, 2002 Combined/S. Combined
2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2003, 2002 Giant Slalom
2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2003 Slalom
Junior British National Alpine Ski Championship Titles
2002 Downhill
2002 Super G
2002, 2001 Giant Slalom
2002, 2001 Slalom
European Youth Winter Olympic Festival
1999 Super G
1999 Giant Slalom

Alcott competed in four Winter Olympic Games and seven FIS World Championships and has been overall Senior British National Champion 7 times (1999, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2007, 2008, 2009) and Overall British Ladies Champion 8 times. She retired from international competition following the 2014 season.[4]

Early life

Born in Hove, England,[1] Alcott was named after Sophia Loren's character in the 1961 film El Cid. She started skiing at 18 months old on a family holiday in Flaine, France, and first raced at the age of three.[5][6]

In 1993, Alcott won the Etoile D'Or French Village Ski Championship, became a member of the British Junior Alpine team in 1994 and won the 1995 Sunday Times Junior Sportswoman of the Year award.[7] Every British summer from the age of 11 to 19 Alcott travelled to New Zealand to train in the winter.[6]

She was a talented athlete, representing Richmond in dry slope skiing, and in tennis at the London Youth Games. She was inducted into the London Youth Games Hall of Fame in 2011.[8]

Aged 11, Alcott broke her neck in a skiing accident, recovering with two vertebrae fused together. She still carries X-rays of the injury so that if she is ever in an accident, the hospital will know not to prise the vertebrae apart.[9]

Career

Alcott made her FIS race debut in August 1997 in a Giant Slalom event at Coronet Peak, New Zealand.[10] By the end of the 1997/1998 season, she had made her debuts in both the FIS Junior World Championships (Chamonix) and the British National Championships (Tignes), where she won a Silver medal in the Giant Slalom.[11]

She returned to the Australia/New Zealand Cup during the 1998 European summer, winning the overall championship. The following winter Alcott won Silver (super G) and Bronze (giant slalom) medals at the 1999 European Youth Olympics in Štrbské Pleso, Slovakia. In December 1999, Alcott made her World Cup debut in a giant slalom race in Lienz, Austria.[12] The winter of 1999 also saw her crowned World Schools Champion, before adding the World Artificial[13] and Australian Overall Championships to her name in 2000.

At the 2001 Junior World Championships, Alcott finished 8th in the slalom event on her way to 5th in the overall classification.[14] The season also saw Alcott capture the 2001 British Junior title and the Senior British super G title in Saalbach-Hinterglemm, Austria.[15][16]

2002 and the Salt Lake City Winter Games

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.[7][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]

2003

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, she won the slalom title for the first time on her way to a clean sweep of all the disciplines title.[23]

2004

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 dDownhill.[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.[6][27]

2005

At the 2005 World Championships (Santa Caterina, Italy), Alcott finished 19th in the Downhill, 22nd in the Super G and 35th place 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]

2006 and the Torino Winter Games

The Torino Winter Olympic Games saw Alcott finish 11th in the downhill, the best Olympic performance by a British female skier since 1968.[7] 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]

Post-Torino and 2007

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.

2008

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.

2009

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]

2011

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]

2012

In Winter/Spring 2012, Alcott competed in ITV1's Dancing on Ice alongside professional skater Sean Rice. They finished 5th place in the competition and were eliminated on 11 March 2012.

2018

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]

Broadcasting

During her injury lay-off at the start of the 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,[49] in which she demonstrated different exercise techniques.

In January 2012 it was announced that Alcott would take part in the ITV programme Dancing on Ice. There was some concern that this would put at risk her rehabilitation from the fractured leg she sustained in December 2010.[50]

In 2018 she was part of the BBC's team providing coverage on the 2018 Winter Olympics.[51]

Personal life

In June 2008, Alcott climbed Mount Kilimanjaro along with fellow ski racers Julia Mancuso and Laurenne Ross, and Alcott's then boyfriend Mark Weaver. The climb raised US$30,000 for international humanitarian organisation Right to Play.[52][53]

As of January 2009, she lives in Hampton Court, England.[54] Chemmy is also a motor sport fan; has an MSA Competition Licence and competed in the 2012 Silverstone Classic Celebrity Challenge race.

In October 2013, the BBC reported that Alcott was to marry her current boyfriend, and fellow alpine ski racer, Dougie Crawford.[4][55] They married in 2014; she now uses the name Chemmy Crawford-Alcott.[56]

She has been actively involved with the Ski Club of Great Britain for a number of years and was given the title of Honorary President in 2017.

Results

World Cup Top-10 finishes
Season Date Location Discipline Result Notes
201018 December 2009Val-d'Isère, FranceSuper Combined9th
200925 October 2008Sölden, AustriaGiant Slalom10th
20073 March 2007Tarvisio, ItalyDownhill9th
15 December 2006Reiteralm, AustriaSuper Combined7th
200418 January 2004Cortina d'Ampezzo, ItalyDownhill9th

World Cup Season standings
Season Overall Downhill Slalom Giant Slalom Super G Combined
Rank (Pts) Rank (Pts) Rank (Pts) Rank (Pts) Rank (Pts) Rank (Pts)
2011*injured 2 Dec 2010, out for season
201032(175)41(10)−(−)26(44)18(68)8(53)
200955(117)38(20)−(−)28(50)36(25)25(22)
200863(76)39(26)−(−)28(25)42(9)28(16)
200732(249)27(84)−(−)21(76)33(37)13(52)
200660(82)51(11)−(−)−(−)29(66)38(5)
200578(30)42(12)−(−)−(−)43(16)−(-)
200451(139)27(68)−(−)39(21)39(50)−(-)
2003115(4)−(−)−(−)−(−)50(4)−(-)

Source:[3]

Major championships
Event Date Location Discipline Result
XXI Olympic Winter Games26 February 2010Whistler Creekside, CanadaSlalom27
24 February 2010Giant SlalomDNF
20 February 2010Super G20
18 February 2010Super Combined11
17 February 2010Downhill13
2009 World Championships12 February 2009Val-d'Isère, FranceGiant Slalom29
9 February 2009Downhill15
6 February 2009Super Combined17
3 February 2009Super G20
2007 World Championships13 February 2007Åre, SwedenGiant Slalom27
11 February 2007DownhillDNF
9 February 2007Super CombinedDNF
6 February 2007Super G28
XX Olympic Winter Games24 February 2006Sestriere, ItalyGiant Slalom22
20 February 2006San Sicario, ItalySuper G19
18 February 2006Sestriere, ItalyCombinedDSQ
15 February 2006San Sicario, ItalyDownhill11
2005 World Championships11 February 2005Santa Caterina, ItalySlalomDNS
8 February 2005Giant Slalom35
6 February 2005Downhill19
4 February 2005CombinedDNF
30 January 2005Super G22
2003 World Championships13 February 2003St. Moritz, SwitzerlandGiant Slalom25
9 February 2003Downhill33
XIX Olympic Winter Games22 February 2002Park City, USGiant Slalom30
20 February 2002Deer Valley, USASlalomDNF
17 February 2002Snowbasin, USASuper G28
14 February 2002Combined14
12 February 2002Downhill32
2001 World Championships19 January 2001St. Anton, AustriaSuper G36
1999 World Championships13 February 1999Vail, USASlalomDNF
11 February 1999Giant Slalom33

Junior World championships
Event Date Location Discipline Result
2002 Junior World ChampionshipsFebruary/March 2002Sella Nevea, ItalyOverall (Points)4
3 March 2002Ravascletto, ItalyGiant Slalom13
1 March 2002Sella Nevea, ItalySlalom22
28 February 2002Tarvisio, ItalySuper GDNF
29 February 2002Downhill12
2001 Junior World ChampionshipsFebruary 2001Verbier, SwitzerlandOverall (Points)5
10 February 2001Giant Slalom19
10 February 2001Slalom8
7 February 2001Super G21
6 February 2001Downhill18
2000 Junior World Championships26 February 2000Lac Beauport, CanadaSlalomDNF
25 February 2000Stoneham, CanadaGiant Slalom21
22 February 2000Mt. St. Anne, CanadaSuper G26
1998 Junior World Championships1 March 1998Chamonix, FranceGiant Slalom72
28 February 1998Slalom56
27 February 1998Super GDNS

Other achievements

References
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  2. "Chemmy Alcott OLY (@ChemmySki) | Twitter". twitter.com. Retrieved 30 January 2019.
  3. "Chemmy Alcott". FIS. World Cup season standings. Retrieved 28 March 2014.
  4. Mintz, Geoff (25 March 2014). "Chemmy Alcott retires from ski racing". Ski Racing. Retrieved 28 March 2014.
  5. Anstead, Mark (5 November 2006). "On the move: Chemmy Alcott". timesonline. Retrieved 31 December 2009.
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  39. https://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5gRSIkStpRq5AUzBkDmjzfRvItbeg. Retrieved 6 February 2009. Missing or empty |title= (help)
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  52. Archived 3 November 2009 at the Wayback Machine
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  55. "Chemmy Alcott targets December comeback after fund-raising bid". BBC. 10 October 2013.
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