10
Alcott switches to Atomic
Thursday June 10, 2010 - Email this article to a friend
Britain's No1 female ski racer has decided to ski on atomic skis. She has been using Volkl lately. But does the brand of ski really make a difference?
Chemmy Alcott has now competed at 3 Olympic Games; Salt Lake City in 2002, Turin in 2006 and more recently Vancouver in February 2010.
Last February she equalled her best ever Olympic result when she came 11th in the Super-Combined.
She had 2 other top 20 placings in the 5 alpine ski disciplines.
Overall though it is fair to say she had hoped to have done better. She talked of being on the podium and going for gold.
Maybe she now will on her new atomic skis.
"This is great news for us," said Jason Summerfield, Manager of Atomic UK. "Chemmy is a great ambassador for our brand moving forwards, she has achieved some great results in her career to date, and we look forward to working with her to help break her existing records."
Skiing to winSo, does the make of ski really have a siginificant impact and enable people to win?
It is a debate that has no easy answer.
In many ways the small group of top level race skis are remarkably similar.
But according to the racers we have spoken to at PlanetSKI much of the difference comes in the back up support.
In terms of the tuning of the ski to the individual racers requirements and the service level offered.
How many skis provided is also crucial.
Then of course there is the money and sponsorship deals that go with it.
They all help the make the ski racer more comfortable and therefore perhaps more confident.
It is not simply about one make of ski being better than the other. Far from it.
Even a recerational skier will know the difference from being on a pair of skis that they like and are comfortable with, and being on a pair that they are not.
For the holiday skier sometimes it is just the colour or graphic design.
"If you like your skis you will ski better on them," a respected mountain guide said recently to one of our reporters. Very true.
Racers will go on much, much more than colour and design, but they need to like the ski too.
Alcott on Atomics; UK 2010
Alcott on Rossignols, Salt Lake City 2002
Bookmark this page
Related Articles
Transceiver park in Scottish resort (Monday January 30, 2012)Using a touch screen with ski gloves (Thursday January 26, 2012)
Should everyone wear a helmet? (Thursday January 26, 2012)
Helmets should be compulsory for all (Wednesday January 18, 2012)
Snow+Rock opens first shop in Scotland (Wednesday December 28, 2011)
EpicMix in Vail Resorts (Thursday December 22, 2011)
