Chemmy Alcott in high spirits ahead of downhill

British skier Chemmy Alcott will approach the Winter Olympics downhill event tomorrow in confident mood after a decent run in the super combined.
Chemmy Alcott: Confident. Picture: APChemmy Alcott: Confident. Picture: AP
Chemmy Alcott: Confident. Picture: AP

The 31-year-old used the downhill part of the event as a practice run for tomorrow and didn’t compete in yesterday afternoon’s slalom.

Alcott always had the intention of pulling out of the super combined following the morning’s downhill, as she is wary of taking on too much after the third leg break of her career in August almost stopped her from competing at her fourth Winter Games.

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The Londoner admitted not competing in the slalom left her feeling downbeat, yet she remains confident she can improve her performance for tomorrow’s downhill.

“I’m going to pull out of the slalom because my downhill actually went so well, I want to focus on the downhill in two days,” she said.

“It’s gutting because I’m in a really nice position now, but I have to think about where my strengths lie this week and they definitely lie in the speed disciplines.

“If I’d had a poor downhill then I’d like to have had a go, depending on how my leg feels, but I have to be sensible now.

“I know that I can ski better than that, so the downhill should be pretty great.”

Alcott was the fifth person out of the blocks at the Rosa Khutor Alpine Centre, but was delighted to put down a time of one minute 44.83 seconds, which left her in 16th place.

“It was phenomenal,” she said. “To get into a race environment, after what I’ve been through, I knew starting number five people would be watching me and I had to up my game.

“I’m really happy with that. There were a couple of turns up there that really challenged my leg, so I just had to muscle through them and know where my strengths are.”