By Sir Arnold Lunn Dave Ryding: the history of the British Alpine Ski

The historian David Ryding second place in the men's slalom in KitzbÃ¼hel World Cup behind a Marcel Hirscher for which there are no more adjectives can describe his greatness, gives us an opportunity to revisit a little 'history of British Alpine skiing.

Monday 23 January 2017 8 minutes reading time

The UK does not have a great tradition in alpine skiing, but this sport was invented by a British, Arnold Lunn, later to become Sir with the title of baronet. At the beginning of the twentieth century talk about ski racing meant talking about ski jumping, skiing and of course phono Nordic combined, but the "downhill skiing" did not exist. It was Lunn invented it by organizing in 1911 the Swiss snows of Crans-Montana a sort of race forerunner of what was then the downhill, called Roberts of Kandahar Ski Challenge Cup. The trophy took its name from its donor, Marshal Frederick Roberts , he became famous in the war against Afghanistan for the march and the next battle in the city of Kandahar fought in 1880, thanks to which he became Earl Roberts of Kandahar. Lunn, introduced to skiing by his father who was a big fan, had founded three years before the first British ski club, the Alpine Ski Club, with which organized the race. Over the years made great strides to make new discipline that was looming in 1921 were coded to the modern slalom rules, which the progenitor races were essentially style races and not rewarded who was stronger, and in 1922 it was organized the first race in MÃ¼rren, also in Switzerland, which from that moment it became the base of operations Lunn and the other English fans. In fact founded in 1924, in memory of Roberts, meanwhile disappeared, the Kandahar Ski Club, under the patronage of the Duke of Kent, this association, together with the Austrian Ski Club Arlberg which was part of Hannes Schneider, founded in 1928 the famous combined Arlberg-Kandahar, whose first edition was staged in St. Anton. It was also thanks to the efforts if Lunn was organized in 1931 in MÃ¼rren the first edition of the Alpine skiing world championships, but mostly it was thanks to him that the new rules came into the Olympic program in Garmisch-Partenkirchen in 1936 for both men for women. Some British skier immediately began to light: in 1930 Bill Bracken won the first edition of the combined Lauberhorn in Wengen, as did Gordon Cleaver in 1931 in the first edition of the Hahnenkamm in KitzbÃ¼hel, but then were swept away by mountain power such as Austria, Switzerland, France, Germany and Italy. Better made women between 1931 and 1936 They collected eleven world medals, including four gold. But then, for them, nothing more until the birth of the World Cup. It was still women to shine in the early years of the event as the most important stages of alpine skiing: Gina Hathorn was second in the slalom Grindelwald 1967 and fourth in the 1968 Olympic Grenoble to Chamrousse and British record holder, including men, to placings in the top ten, 22 Cup between 1967 and 1972. Felicity Field was sixth in the downhill to five more circles in Chamrousse, while Divina Galica has racked up 16 top ten including two third places in the descents of Badgastein and Chamonix in 1968, later he passed to car trying to qualify between 1976 and 1978 in three Grands Prix of Formula 1 without ever succeeding all away. Finally Chimene Alcott, for all "Chemmy", she finished five times in the top ten, and his best result was seventh place in the 2006 Combined Reiteralm. Among men, after an impromptu ninth place in the 1968 MÃ©ribel giant Jeremy Parker-Tomkinson, there was December 13, 1981 an equally improvised podium caught him in the downhill in Val Gardena just 11 cents by Austrian Erwin Resch Konrad Bartelski , hitherto famous for being the protagonist of a terrible fall in Megeve following which seriously risked his life and after which no longer raced on that track dedicated to the local darling Emile Allais. In the eighties there were also two good skiers as the Scot Martin Graham Bell and his younger brother, the eldest was fifth in Ã…re in 1986. Then came another Scotsman, Alain Baxter, who in the 2000-2001 season was four times among the top ten in slalom with a fourth place in Ã…re best result, but above all he was third at Deer Valley in the Olympic slalom in Salt Lake City in 2002 but the bronze was taken from him because in a doping test in his urine were found traces of methamphetamine. Baxter was able to show that the prohibited substance was contained in a nasal spray that was used to treat a bad cold during the Games, the disqualification was reduced by the canons two years to three months, but the medal went to Benni Raich. Finally, he said a tenth of Finlay Mickel in Wengen downhill in 2006, here is David Ryding, whose story we told here and that yesterday made history of alpine skiing in the Kingdom of His Britannic Majesty.

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