220: Chemmy Alcott, 4 x Winter Olympian & Ski Sunday presenter
This special episode is part of an occasional set of podcasts I’m going to be publishing this winter focussing particularly on women in the snowsports industry.
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SHOW NOTES
Chemmy’s given name is Chemine (2:45)
In Dec 2010 Chemmy suffered a double fracture of her right leg at Lake Louise (5:00)
Shortly after Chemmy learned her funding had been withdrawn by BSS (8:45)
Third Space helped Chemmy with funding (9:45)
Chemmy took part in ‘Dancing on Ice’ in 2012, finishing 5th (11:45)
BSS said Chemmy’s participation was an ‘acceptable’ risk (13:00)
Chemmy has broken over 40 bones in her career (16:00)
Injuries include a dislocated jaw, broken neck, broken back, broken ribs, groin tears, two ACLs, compound tibia/fibula fracture and a broken ankle
Chemmy learned to ski in Flaine and takes her family there now (22:00)
Her first race was when she was 3 years old (although she didn’t win!) (23:30)
Chemmy made her FIS debut at Coronet Peak in 1997 (27:30)
She won medals at the European Youth Olympics in 1999 in SuperG and GS (28:45)
In 2002 Chemmy beat Lyndsey Vonn in Junior Worlds and was 4th overall (29:00)
Chemmy took part in the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics (29:45)
Chemmy competed in all five disciplines: downhill, super G, giant slalom, slalom and combined
Alain Baxter ‘won’ the bronze in Slalom at Salt Lake (31:00)
Chemmy finished 11th in the Downhilll at the 2006 Turin Olympics (32:00)
At the 2010 Vancouver Olympics Chemmy finished 11th in the super-combined (37:00)
Chemmy broke her leg again in the summer of 2013 in Saas Fee (39:30)
Sochi in 2014 was Chemmy’s fourth Winter Olympics (43:00)
She finished 19th in the Downhill, which ‘felt like a gold’ (43:15)
Lady Gaga is an inspiration (44:00)
Chemmy retired in 2014 and started working on ‘Ski Sunday’ in 2015 (46:00)
Working on the 2018 Winter Olympics, Chemmy teamed up with Claire Balding (46:45)
In 2020 Chemmy joined Ed Leigh as one of the presenters of ‘Ski Sunday’ (47:15)
Listen to Iain’s in-depth interview with Chemmy while she was based in Laax (47:30)
Listen to Iain’s interview with Ed Leigh (49:00)
Why isn’t there more freestyle coverage on ‘Ski Sunday’? (51:00)
Listen to Iain’s interview with Zac Carrick-Smith (52:30)
On how women take those decisions to find time for themselves (58:00)
Listen to Chemmy explaining about her downhill POV camera runs (59:30)
Leonardo Da Vinci:
“Once you’ve tasted flight you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skywards, for there you have been, and there you will always long to return.”
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