By Simon Evans
YANQING, China (Reuters) – There is a curious expression in the German-speaking world for skiers who come from outside the sport’s snow-covered heartlands – they call them “the exotics”.
Dave Ryding certainly comes from well beyond Alpine skiing’s traditional breeding grounds but there is nothing too exotic about Pendle Hill, where he learnt to ski on windswept dry slopes at the side of an old pub-turned-restaurant.
They do not call Ryding an “exotic” any more though. Nor do those who finish behind him in races get mocked by team mates.
Indeed, last month, the entire World Cup field at the legendary Kitzbuehel course in Austria lost to the 35-year-old, so noone facing him in Wednesday’s Olympic slalom race will be taking him lightly.
“There were always some jokes. I mean, that’s the banter, I don’t mind that,” Ryding told Reuters, looking back on his early days on the World Cup circuit.
“You know, it was ‘Oh, I got beaten by a Brit today’ or, ‘you lost to a guy from an exotic nation’. Obviously, we’re not exotic – it pisses down (with rain) all the time!”
The jokes are fewer now: Ryding is a respected figure on the circuit earning praise from some of slalom’s finest.
Austrian former double Olympic champion Marcel Hirscher almost cried at a documentary about the Englishman’s career.
At Pendle Ski Club, where scores of young hopefuls follow Ryder’s example, the Lancastrian is revered.
“He’s always been an inspiration here,” said Charlotte Holmes, a 16-year-old Pendle skier who, along with her brother Rob, 19, is part of the Team GB youth squads.
“We always believed in him, but this breakthrough that he’s had, it’s just incredible. All the kids are buzzing. the atmosphere up here, it’s just magical now.”
‘OUR DAVE’
Charlotte’s father John is a long-standing coach at the club who saw Ryder grow up on the dry slopes and feels the skier’s rise still has not quite got the recognition deserved at home.
“People in this country don’t realise the scale of what he has done – it is massive. It is testament not so much to his technical skills but to his dedication and hard work,” he said.
“It is like somebody who plays pitch and putt golf at the local park, enjoys it, continues on and then eventually wins the Masters.”
Watching children tear down the track looking over the picturesque Ribble Valley, it is hard to imagine a journey which ends with potential Olympic glory.
“We have got 160 metres of scrubbing brush, which he started on, which he enjoyed. Austrian kids, they have skis on their feet at three years old and have training after school. For him to go to Kitzbuehel and win that race, it is staggering,” said John.
The young skiers, parents and volunteers of what is Britain’s most successful dry slope ski race team, will gather in their club house next week, in the middle of the night, to watch Ryding take on the “Ice River” course.
“The kids have got school the next morning but no one cares. Everyone wants to watch our Dave at the Olympics,” said Charlotte.
Ryding visits regularly and checks in with the Pendle skiers, including Team GB Special Olympian gold medalist David Corr.
“I am just glad I’ve shown it is possible,” Ryding said.
“I don’t need to talk anymore. I don’t need to say ‘keep working hard and you can do it’ because I’ve done it and it’s there on TV. So yeah, I can sit back and just say – ‘go and do it and win more than I have done’. Why not?”
Ryding is in his fourth Olympics after finishing ninth in Pyeongchang in 2018, but having made history at Kitzbuehel as the first British World Cup winner and the oldest first time winner in a World Cup slalom, his place in the sport’s history is cemented regardless of the outcome.
“My career won’t be defined by next Wednesday. No. It will be what it will be, I will give absolutely everything to win the race. But you know, so will everyone else.”
And try as he might to treat the race as just another contest on the snow, Ryding knows that is impossible.
“Four years ago, I thought I would be able to do that but then you turn up at the start and you see the Olympic rings…”
(Reporting by Simon Evans; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne)
