Dave Ryding's Olympic Farewell: The Rocket's Final Race in Bormio

Dave Ryding's Olympic Journey

By Martyn Herman

Early Career and Challenges

BORMIO, Italy, Feb 13 (Reuters) - For Britain's Dave Ryding there was no Plan B when he set off on an unlikely path to becoming a professional ski racer.

Achievements and Milestones

On Monday, his journey that began on the plastic slopes of Pendle Hill in the English town of Clitheroe as an eight-year-old who had never seen the Alps, will reach its climax in his fifth and final Olympics.

Final Olympic Aspirations

Long gone are the days when being beaten by "the British guy" was guaranteed to spark mockery among skiers from traditional Alpine nations.

Indeed, when the 39-year-old makes his Olympic bow in Monday's slalom, the man they call 'The Rocket' will line up with the respect of the world's elite racers he has battled for more than a decade

"So many kids came from wealthy families and they had a fallback option," a relaxed Ryding said on a sunny terrace at the Bormio hotel housing Britain's slalom squad on Friday.

"I didn't. It was a case of you either make this work or you walk away with an empty bank account at 30 years old and then go on with your life. I was willing to do that. I wasn't bothered about that. So that's how I managed to do it."

Ryding, who skied on snow for the first time at 12, admits a pro career looked unlikely when finishing 49th, 33 seconds behind the winner, in his first international race in 2002.

"I remember sitting in a high school class, thinking I'd love to go to one Olympics, and I'd love to be ranked in the top 30 in the world," Ryding said. "Looking at that you'd think, 'what's this guy thinking?'

"It was a matter of, yeah, right, I'm not very good at skiing, certainly in my first year of FIS races, but I knew how to apply myself, I knew how to race. I was in a much more long-term mindset of I'm going to do this."

His early forays on the World Cup were not encouraging. He finished only one of his first 21 races but he showed his potential at the Sochi Olympics with a top-20 finish.

Four years later, as an established World Cup racer, he was ninth in the slalom in Pyeongchang and fifth in team parallel.

SKILLS IMPROVED 

Ryding's skills improved with age and four years ago, at 35, he won the World Cup slalom at the Mecca of Alpine skiing -- Kitzbuehel -- the first Briton to win a World Cup race.

With the end imminent, the focus now is Monday when he will aim to win Britain's first Olympic medal in Alpine skiing.

Britain did collect a bronze medal at the Salt Lake City Olympics in 2002 when Scot Alain Baxter finished third in the slalom but he was told to return it after testing positive for a banned substance traced to an over-the-counter nasal inhaler.

"Everyone loves to talk about a medal. It would be amazing but it certainly won't totally define me," Ryding said. "But that's why I'm here, right?

"I said to myself two years ago that I had left a little bit on the table in the major events, the Olympics and the worlds. Last year I managed sixth (in the world championships) and this year I'm really trying to do better than ninth in Pyeongchang.

"Nothing really matters anymore. All I want to do on Monday is stay in the fight and get in the mindset where I go all in."

Ryding and his wife Mandy opened a coffee shop in 2019 in his village of Tarleton near Liverpool, a venture he said took his mind off slalom and stopped him becoming 'a cauliflower'.

Once he hangs up his race boots, he said he would take up ski racing again only "if they invent a robot for the kitchen".

Whatever life has in store, Ryding will walk away knowing he put British Alpine skiing on the map and inspired team mates such as Lawrie Taylor and Billy Major.

"No one's ever done it that way, it's my way, Ryding said. "It's been an amazing journey."

(Reporting by Martyn Herman; editing by Clare Fallon)