A Brit’s grit: British World Cup vet Chemmy Alcott fights back from multiple breaks

Chemmy Alcott in Cortina (GEPA/Thomas Bachun)

To stay in the game, ski racers in their 30s often have to be more persistent than their injuries.

Luckily for British ski racer Chemmy Alcott, persistence isn’t a problem.

The 31-year-old has broken her leg three times, part of a recurring injury. It all started in a training crash in Lake Louise in December 2010. She broke two bones in her right leg, ultimately requiring a titanium plate to hold things together.

The 15-year World Cup veteran skied with the plate last season, knowing full well her right-footers wouldn’t be terribly strong, but believed she could ski fast enough to prequalify for the Sochi 2014 Olympic Games — and she did.

Another crash in a downhill training run at the World Championships in Schladming resulted in another break in the same leg. Doctors removed the hardware to allow the leg to heal, which it did, and Alcott was firing on all cylinders during the summer, skiing fast and pain-free without any metalwork. But on the final run of the final day of an August training camp, Alcott crashed and broke the leg again, subsequently receiving a metal nail that runs from her knee to her ankle.

This is just a preview. Read the whole story of Alcott’s latest return to competition in Issue 6 of our digital magazine here.