The British Alpine Ski Team is the most successful it’s ever been, but this hasn’t come without its challenges. Five-time Olympic skier and ex-Alpine World Cup racer Graham Bell took some time off the slopes to talk about why this is a team you should pay attention to.

Skiing was a family affair for Graham Bell; his obsession began at the age of five, and alongside his brother Martin, he went on to compete at the highest level of alpine skiing throughout the 1980s and 1990s. 

“The family were completely immersed in skiing. It was everything, really,” he says.

Few know more about the struggles that British skiers face than he does. 

At the forefront of British alpine skiing today is Dave Ryding, who became the first Brit to win a World Cup slalom race in 2022. With numerous podium finishes across World Cup competitions, he’s widely considered the greatest skier Britain has ever produced. 

Alongside him are Laurie Taylor and Billy Major, who’ve both secured top-ten finishes in World Cup races; it’s no wonder the outlook for British skiing, at least performance-wise, is extremely hopeful. 

Despite the backdrop of the team’s unfounded success, alpine skiing was cut from what UK Sport called World-Class funding in 2022 when it was deemed “not investible”. This resulted in the team missing out on £7.2m, raising doubts about whether they’d be able to afford coaching costs.

In response, the team set up a crowdfunding campaign with an initial target of £500,000 to ensure they could continue their training. A far cry from what any Austrian or Swiss skier would have to concern themselves with after a period of sustained success.

Bell describes the backing of British alpine skiers as a gamble, one that the governing bodies are hesitant to take.

He explains that while alpine skiing boasts one of the highest levels of participation in snow sports, with its prize money figures surpassing those of others and the largest TV viewing figures, funding bodies are hesitant to fully support the team, as it takes the longest time to produce top-level alpine skiers.

“That’s the problem UK Sports have; it’s not a quick fix; it’s not an easy thing to produce anyone who could go to the Olympics or potentially medal. It’s tough to produce an alpine medallist,” Bell says.

He uses the example of Dave Ryding, who’s now 38 and achieved his first World Cup podium in 2017, to illustrate his point. 

“Look at his progression over the years, from when he started racing internationally to winning a World Cup. It was a very, very long process that had no guarantee that it would produce the goods in the end, but it did.

“We’ve got skiers coming through now who are way up on that performance pathway, and yet UK Sport is still blind to that fact, so that, for me, is where there’s a little bit of frustration.”

He mentions the Carrick-Smith brothers, three extremely promising young skiers who have already medalled at the Youth Winter Olympics and Junior World Championships. 

One of the brothers, Freddie Carrick-Smith, is ranked higher than former Norwegian World Champion Henrik Kristoffersen was at his age, just in case there was any doubt that future generations wouldn’t be able to replicate the success of the current team. 

This current crop of British talent and the next generation in waiting prove that British skiers can compete with the alpine powerhouses. 

This begs the question, what about the future of alpine skiing isn’t deemed investible? 

Something that weighs against the British Alpine Ski Team is the lack of ambition from those above to secure the team’s large commercial sponsorships. Meaning they have to rely heavily on benefactor sponsors. Having the best British team ever assembled and not capitalising on it financially only puts more strain on the skiers. 

“It’s mind-boggling,” Bell says.

In his early racing days, Bell was too young to inherit the Rémy Martin sponsorship left by his British Alpine racing predecessor Konrad Bartelski, but within a couple of years, he was sponsored by Bell’s Whiskey, then Gordon’s Gin, and eventually Drambuie. 

While it may not align with the world of high-performance skiing to be sponsored by alcohol brands today, the fact that British skiing hasn’t secured a big enough deal with any major partners to relieve the financial burden on the team is a mystery.

With uncertainty over whether there would be enough funds to pay for coaching, it takes a team of extremely focused athletes to continue grinding out results when they’re unsure if they’ll have the funds to continue training the following week.

Bell says all they can do is focus on the slope in front of them and take faith in the fact that results will come their way.

“There’s a massively strong work ethic on the team right now. And everyone has learned a lot from the way that Dave (Ryding) works.

“I think that with Dave, there’s more belief that winning is possible because once one person does it, and goes ahead and wins the World Cup. Not just any World Cup wins, Kitzbuhel, one of the most challenging slaloms, it gives everyone else the belief that it can be done. So there’s a real kind of faith in that.”

Quite the feat for a Brit from Chorley who learnt to ski on UK dry slopes, considering he’s up against Alps natives who essentially would’ve been born in a pair of skis.

So, in a country where upcoming skiers rely on indoor snow centres and dry slopes to get into the sport, Brits with the best chance of making it to the top nowadays are those who grow up in and around ski resorts, mostly the children of ex-snowsport professionals.

Bell uses the example of the Carrick-Smith brothers, who all grew up training in France. Even his niece, Reece Bell, now competing on the Women’s World Cup Circuit, began her racing career on the slopes of Vail, Colorado.

“As long as we can keep them British and they don’t revert to the nation they grew up in, then we could be doing pretty well,” Bell jokes.

This will be a worry when you look at the lack of support for the current British ski team compared to the security offered by joining one of the powerhouses. 

“If Dave were Austrian, he’d probably have earned ten times as much money.

“Our athletes have to work harder than anyone else. Yeah, it’s tough to get on the Austrian team, but the amount of support you get can make you a little bit lazy compared to how hard our guys are having to work.”

With the uncertainty that has loomed over British skiers, complacency is a luxury they can’t afford.

But will the Brits always be underdogs in skiing? 

“Absolutely, always,” Bell says definitively.

However, with the talent of the current team, there is reason to be hopeful; with Taylor and Major beginning to push Ryding for the top spots and junior skiers like the Carrick-Smith brothers being among the best at their age, the future of British alpine skiing looks extremely bright.

“It’s about recognising that talent as it comes along.

“They’ve (British Alpine Ski Team) proved that it can be done. The fact that they’re doing it gives everyone hope.

“There’s a clear indication of world-class potential, and if that’s not picked up and funded, that’s bordering on criminal,” says Bell.