today 14:35
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On Sunday, history was rewritten as part of the men’s Olympic giant slalom. Benjamin Alexander – the first Jamaican skier at the Winter Olympics – stood at the start of the race.
He was born in 1983 in Great Britain, but represents his father’s home country – Jamaica. Benjamin Alexander is writing a really incredible story at this year’s Winter Olympics in Beijing.
He’s been on skis for the first time as a 32-year-old
He worked as a DJ for most of his life, even living in Ibiza, Spain for six years. He slept during the day and went to discos at night. But his whole life turned him 180 degrees in 2015, when he was ordered as a DJ for a mountain hut in Canada. Alexander noticed a few people skiing down the slope during the day and told himself that he had to try it one day.
“As they put on their skis and suddenly disappeared from our sight, they looked almost like superheroes,” he remembered for official Olympic website Benjamin Alexander.
A few months later, he was already skiing. Alexander skied for the first time in his life at the age of 32 and immediately fell in love with the sport. Initially, he spent most of his time after falling to the ground, but gradually began to improve. There were fewer and fewer falls, but Alexander still had a long way to go.
ALREADY 70 SECONDS BEHIND THE WINNER
In 2018, a native of Wellingborough came to see the Winter Olympics in Pyongyang, South Korea. At the very moment, he was struck by the fact that only three athletes represented Jamaica at this Olympics. It was during his stay in South Korea that he thought for the first time that he, too, could one day represent the exotic country of his ancestors at the Winter Olympics.
In January 2019, Alexander met with former American skier Gordon Gray, whom he asked plainly what he thought of his dream. At first, Gray watched Alexander for a few hours and then told him that he had never seen such a terrible technique, but on the other hand he admired Jamaican’s courage, which made him not afraid to accelerate and was able to go down the slope in a relatively short time.
Other long hours of hard training and weeks or even months of preparation followed, so that Benjamin’s Alexander could finally fulfill his life dream. Participation in the Beijing Winter Olympics has become a reality and the former DJ has even become the flag bearer of Jamaica at the opening ceremony.
However, the historically first Jamaican skier at the Winter Olympics was well aware that he did not have a chance to compete with athletes who have been skiing professionally since childhood. Benjamin Alexander thus did not come to China with any great ambitions: “I have no goal in fighting for the top spots. But if I manage to reach the finish line, I can overtake all those who fail and drop out. ”
These words eventually came true. Skiers who stood at the start of the giant slalom on Sunday had to struggle with difficult weather conditions bordering on regularity. A total of 41 downhill runs did not finish the race. But Benjamin Alexander did it. The Jamaican eventually finished among those who reached the finish line in the last 46th place with an abysmal almost 70-second encounter against the first Swissman Marc Odermatt.
“Hell, it was really hard!” exhausted 38-year-old Benjamin Alexander said into the camera after arriving at the finish line and continued: “This is for all those who think they can never succeed in skiing. Register your children for winter sports, let them start doing them before me, before they are thirty-two years old. Let’s change this sport. Well thank you. I’m exhausted, I need a good massage and beer now. ”
Pierre de Coubertin, the founder of the modern Olympic Games, often repeated the same sentence: “The most important thing is not to win, but to participate.”
Well, in the case of Benjamin Alexander, this is doubly true. Let’s be surprised if his story inspires other people from exotic countries to start skiing. Alexander himself says that skiing doesn’t have to be just about racers from ten countries with a rich skiing tradition, where they have mountains, snow and a lot of money. According to him, skiing can also be a sport for everyone.
He finished last first. Then he sensationally won the Olympic medal for Slovakia:
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