As all ponder the rigours of pre season take time out to consider the application required to get to the top in skiing
This comes from comparison with somebody close to Anniesland

There is always a price to pay for success and you start paying in July
The road to success is always under construction


The Scotsman reported

The quiet revolution that is changing British skiing
MARK Tilston, performance director to the British skiing team, is a straight talker, as direct as the trajectory of Finlay Mickel, the team's star skier this season, as he shoots like an arrow towards the finish line.

Fixing you with his piercing green eyes, Tilston says: "Britain's never going to be a big nation in skiing, but I think we can be a strong nation." Later in his hotel in Meribel, where the British Land National Ski Championships have been taking place this week, he almost cracks a joke. "I'm a big fan of skiing to enjoy yourself," he says deadpan, "but there are plenty of avenues to do that. The national team isn't one of them."

A revolution is underway in British skiing and Glasgow-born Tilston, in his second season as performance director, is leading it. There have been casualties: a higher turnover of athletes, and more likely to fall by the wayside. But in the shake-up there should emerge skiers who share Tilston's belief.

"There was always this mentality that because we're British, and we don't have the Alps on our doorstep, then we can't be world-class skiers," he says. "I think that's a feeble excuse."

It seems hard to credit that Lynn Sharp and Pamela Thorburn, both 19 and from Glasgow and Strathaven respectively, and Melissa Piper, 17 and from Auchterarder, might be products of such a regime. Seeing them in Meribel, you might lazily assume that the three girls are indeed here for nothing more serious than recreation and après ski.

Far from it. It's not that they exude seriousness, but they are dedicated to what they do - they have no choice.

All three of them, having started skiing so young that they "can't remember learning," left home at 17, to base themselves at the British Olympic training centre in Lofer, Austria, and to spend nine months of the year in ski boots.

In their three months off, they train at least twice a day. Two hours' cycling, weight training in the afternoon - upper body one day, legs the next - and flexibility in the evening.

"I think people don't quite understand how hard it is to compete in this sport; some think we just ski," notes Thorburn, who took bronze in yesterday's slalom. Sharp claimed silver behind the all-conquering Chemmy Alcott, one of the five world-class skiers, alongside Mickel, James Leuzinger, Alain and Noel Baxter, in the 15-strong British team.

On Thursday, Piper excelled to win silver in the giant slalom, At the end of the week, she was acclaimed as the most improved skier.

Piper joined the development team, comprising another 15 skiers, on a full-time basis this season, although somehow she manages to combine this with her school work. After her Highers in June she hopes to emulate Thorburn and Sharp, who graduated from development to national team after one year.

All three dream of going to the Olympic Games, but it would seem that Whistler in 2010 is a more realistic goal than Turin 2006. "Each year I've improved," says Sharp. "All of us are skiing better technically, but now instead of being at the top of one step we're at the bottom of the next one. As you move up the ladder it gets tougher to get results."

"The fitness training is hard but you can do it," says Thorburn. "What's difficult is that every day, everything changes: the snow conditions, the weather, the course. If you're a 400 metres runner, every time you race it's pretty much the same. In skiing, everything is different, and it's so tough to ski consistently well."

"All these skiers sacrifice a hell of a lot - their education, social life, relationships, time with their family - but it's what they have to do," says Tilston.

"They're the only ones who will decide if they are going to make a 95 per cent commitment, which is easy, or 100 per cent. It's that 5 per cent that I think is the difference."

This article was originally posted on 17-Jun-2007, 16:18 by Hugh Barrow.
Last updated by Hugh Barrow on 17-Jun-2007, 16:47.