Brits at The Olympics - Ben Clatworthy, Racing Correspondent
Tuesday February 9, 2010 - Email this article to a friend

In the Women's alpine events, Chemmy Alcott, will be competing in her 3rd Winter Olympics when she steps up to the starting gate in Vancouver.

She is the No 1 female racer and has been putting in some decent performances recently on the World Cup circuit this season, though she will have to ski the race of he life if she wants to get in the medals.  

Chemmy Alcott

She finished 9^th in the Super Combined in Val d'Isere in December and 11^th place Giant Slalom in Are in early December.  Olympic glory is not way out of the question for Alcott, who finished 11^th place in the 2006 Turin Olympic Downhill, but she must be considered an outside chance.

In the men's alpine events one of our most promising hopes is Ed Drake who has his sights still firmly set on Vancouver 2010 despite recent illness.

Ed got his season off to a flying start with Europa Cup podium for Super G after finishing 3rd in Reiteralm, Austria.  

Ed has been racing full time on the British Team for 4 years.  He competed in his first World Cup race last January in Wengen.  

Ed DrakeHowever he has said that his real target for Olympic glory is Sochi in Russia next time round in 2014.

He does though need some good results so he can build on them and is aiming for a top 20 place.

Up and coming star Douglas Crawford is certainly one to watch in the coming weeks as we lead up to the Olympics. 

A regular on the World Cup circuit this season, Crawford, is hoping to make it to the games next month.  He debuted on the World Cup circuit with Ed last January and this season has competed in Lake Louise, Beaver Creek, Val d'Isere and Val Gardena.  He performed very well in the South American Cup at the beginning of the season, finishing 7th in the Super Combined event.

For those who like to support the underdog Kwame Nkrumah-Acheampong, has qualified for the 2010 Olympics competing for Ghana. 

Despite claims he will become the next 'Eddie the Eagle', he has remained confident that he has what it takes. 

The snow leopardIn 2005 Kwame, known as The Snow Leopard,  attempted to qualify for the 2006 games but failed to turn up to the selection process being held in Iran. 

He set up the Ghanian Winter Olympic Association in order to bid for a place at the games.  He competed in the 2009 FIS World Ski Championships in Val d'Isere but failed to qualify for the final races and finished near last in the Giant Slalom and last in the Slalom.

The international field

In the alpine skiing Lyndsey Vonn seems unstoppable in the women's events while the men's is slightly more open.

Vonn will be challenged by Raich and a few others, but she is certainly the firm favourite.  It's really a question of how many gold medals she is going to win, not if.

In the men's events it is tighter. The Swiss wonderkid, Carla Jenko, has done very well this season and is a favourite.   The eyes of many will be on Bode Miller, now back in the US team and probably the biggest name in the ski world. It would be comic-book stuff if he took gold.

Quite often though it is an outsider who takes Olympic gold so watch out for a few others including Cuche, Defago and Ligerty.

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