‘Squeaky-bum time’: Ryding targets Olympic gold after shock World Cup win

After becoming Britain’s newest – and perhaps most unlikely – World Cup winner, Dave “the Rocket” Ryding, a 35-year-old slalom skier from Chorley in Lancashire, has set his sights on surprising the world again at next month’s Winter Olympics.

Until Saturday no British skier had ever won a gold medal in the 55-year history of the Alpine World Cup. But Ryding’s stunning victory in Kitzbühel changed all that – and earned him 100,000 euros in the process.

When asked about what went through his mind on the start line before his remarkable second run, which took him from sixth place to first, Ryding was disarmingly honest. “I thought: ‘Bugger it, I’ll just try and get down and ski as well as I can and see where that gets me,’” he replied.

The performance made Ryding the oldest ever winner of a men’s World Cup slalom event, but afterwards he was too tired to celebrate with a few drinks. “I am too old for that,” he said, smiling. “I am absolutely shattered. We had a nice meal.”

The popular skier will soon travel to Beijing for his fourth Winter Olympic Games – where he admits, to borrow a phrase from Sir Alex Ferguson, that it will be “squeaky-bum time”.

“Of course I’m going to have pressure and of course people are going to expect I will do well,” he admitted. “At my last Olympics I got to the start gate and it was squeaky-bum time.

“And I’ll be nervous again because it’s the biggest race in the four years. It’s the pinnacle. I’ll be expecting myself to ski well but whatever happens I can go home knowing I’ve got a World Cup victory.”

That win was the culmination of a near 30-year journey, which began when Ryding started learning to ski aged six on the 50m Pendle dry slope in Lancashire. However it was only when he was 12 that