Dave Riding talks climate change, alpine skiing, another Winter Olympics and the best season

Britain's most successful alpine skier Dave Ryding said his sport needed to “move with the times” by moving races to higher altitudes, but did not rule out competing indoors.

This year's World Cup ski season was hit by unseasonably high temperatures, and three of the 13 scheduled slalom races were canceled, including the sport's specialty, slalom.

Unfortunately, the sight of thin white strips of man-made slopes snaking down brown or green mountains made me wonder if the days of alpine skiing as we know it are numbered.

Looking back at the 37-year-old's most successful season, Riding said it was time for the sport's governing body, the International Ski Federation (FIS), to come up with a “Plan B”, adding that “this year is probably too late a season” for change. teeth.

In an interview with BBC Sport, he said there are many resorts available that are above 3,000 meters above sea level, rather than scheduling a race in March at just 800 metres.

Asked what his sport will look like for future generations, Riding said: “I don't think it has to go indoors, but it can be brought indoors. Saudi Arabia is an all-purpose indoor “We're building some ski resorts.”

“I think we'll go to higher elevations first. I mean, we still ski on glaciers in the summer and we have snow. So in the winter we'll have snow.”

Riding, who started skiing on dry slopes, said he hopes he doesn't end up racing on dry slopes, though he joked that he'll “get pretty good at it.”

A slalom competition held last month in Slovenia's Kranjska Gora (over 800 meters above sea level), where temperatures were in the mid-teens Celsius, was canceled due to heavy rain. This was followed by the cancellation of slalom in Val d'Isere, France in December due to rain and snow, and heavy rain in Bansko, Bulgaria in February.

Seven of the first nine races in all men's Alpine Ski World Cup events have been canceled for the 2023-24 season. In total, 13 races for men and 8 races for women were canceled, of which 5 were replaced.

After Switzerland's Daniel Juhl made an unprecedented comeback from 30th place after his first run to win the men's slalom in Chamonix in February, climate scientist Marc Maslin said He said that fluctuations are having an impact.

Maslin said the top 30 for the first race was in reverse order, meaning Yule started first in the second race, then “in scorching 12 degrees Celsius, the snow quickly cleared for the rest of the competitors.” It started to melt.”

Questions have been raised about what the future holds for the sport at a time when Britain is enjoying success on the slopes, and Riding said the next 20 years “look very good” for the team, particularly in slalom.

Riding has finished on the podium in at least one World Cup race in each of the past four seasons, finishing third at Madonna di Campiglio in Italy in November, his seventh podium of the season.

In his 15th World Cup season, he tied for seventh place in the overall slalom standings, a career-high.

This success comes despite funding for the British Alpine team being cut by UK Sport for the next four-year Olympic cycle after the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics. Riding and others have launched a crowdfunding campaign to continue their careers, and are giving back to their supporters with results.

Slalom teammates Billy Major, 27, and Rory Taylor, 28, have also achieved their best results of the season, with Olympic Youth Champion Zac Carrick-Smith behind them, but riding He believes the team is proving “100% investable again.” ”.

“I've never looked back thinking 'what if', but certainly I've proven myself and whether or not they decide they can't fund me, “I’m out there to prove them wrong,” he said.

“I really want to prove them wrong and continue to strive to prove that I'm worthy and that I can still do great things even though I'm 37 years old now. ”

And how does the 37-year-old manage it?

Mr Riding, from Chorley, Lancashire, said: “I'm not sure but I think it's probably a northern gut thing.”

“And just staying motivated and keeping my body healthy and doing that for 20 years, it probably pays off more than other athletes who haven't taken care of themselves for, say, years. Like me. ”

Riding, a four-time Winter Olympian, previously said that if he thought about training for the next Olympic cycle, he would “want to cringe and cry.”

But with less than two years to go until the 2026 Milan-Cortina Games, he has a very different opinion.

“I've crossed the threshold of the Olympic cycle,” he said. “I've been doing it for two years, and the Olympics are actually less than two years away, and I'm still having a better season than I've ever had before.

“If everything goes according to plan, I'll be there.”