From dodging sheep to the Olympic slopes: Ryding sets sights on gold

The alpine slalom skier Dave Ryding insists that Britain’s blank medal tally so far at these Winter Olympics has only made him more determined to ride to the rescue by winning gold this week.

Ryding, who clinched his first World Cup victory in Kitzbühel last month, believes the Yanqing course and artificial snow suits his style of skiing. And the 35-year-old says he is prepared to “risk it for the biscuit” – in other words go for broke – when his competition starts in the early hours of Wednesday UK time.

“I am going to have to risk more than normal, but I am in the mindset that I will have to do or die,” said Ryding, who will be competing in his fourth Winter Games. “I’ve had a ninth place at the Olympics, so I have had a decent one, and there is no point going for another ninth. I may as well try to go better – and with slalom the only way is to risk it. The winner will take it all, and I have to go for it. There is no reason why not.”

Ryding learned to ski on a dry slope in Pendle, Lancashire that was full of sheep, who would sometimes run across while he was training. On other occasions they would, in his words, “do their business when we weren’t there – a rainy night and you would get a lot of splatters, it was horrible”.

However, learning on those dry ski slopes will, he believes, help on the artificial snow he finds himself facing in China. “I don’t know how to describe it other than it is icy and slippy, but when you get your edge into it it is unbelievably aggressive and grippy,” he added.

The man known as “the Rocket” also knows that the lack of a medal in the first 10 days has put pressure on him, and other members of the British squad that are still to compete. But he insists that with Team GB’s men’s and