Careers on fast track

FOR most British youngsters attaining the goal of World Cup level skiing now requires prolonged periods on the road, or being based in Europe or America for an education. Here is a look at the potential and the pitfalls.

SUSANNE SPALDING

n.A SECOND place at Europa Cup level in Bled, Slovenia, and a 20th place on her World Cup debut in La Clusaz just weeks ago reaffirmed Susanne Spalding as Britain's brightest emerging freestyle skiing prospect.

At 30, from Houston in Renfrewshire, she's not at all concerned that she's something of a late developer - indeed that's part of the beauty of her chosen track to the top. After miles of skiing prior to successfully completing a degree, so far unused, in Industrial Studies at Sheffield University, her parents are honouring the promised incentive to support her skiing career if she completed her further education.

This is her third year of full-time specialising in the moguls discipline, although she has already lost part of a season to the skier's occupational hazard, the anterior cruciate ligament injury.

A natural athlete with a boundless passion for globetrotting and adrenaline sports, she believes her maturity and travelling keeps her sane while putting in the miles on the road.

``It's the setbacks which take it out of you. Here we are again waiting for the car to come out of the garage after being fixed and we've just got to get on with it,'' she emphasised, speaking from a French roadside.

Although her family's financial support helps keep body and soul together, just as Britain's Alpine team are the poor relations to the European nations' team programmes, British freestylers are British Alpine skiing's hard-up cousins.

``Don't get me wrong, we've had some great coaching camps with Eric Berthon (French Olympic mogul champion) and Jan Quinet (ex-French team) which have made all the difference to my skiing, but while the French freestyle team all get a basic wage and have the back up of full time coaches, physios, psychologists, nutritionists and the like, we have no full-time coach travelling to events with us and no transport provided, with the exception of when we can borrow a minibus from the Alpine squads.''

She's very definitely on course for an Olympic debut at Nagano in Japan in 1998, confirms British freestyle manager Jonathon Bayntoun.

GARETH RUDD

n.AGED 25, Edinburgh's Gareth Rudd is still one of the country's top slalom skiers and has won acclaim for his aggressive but technically tidy and composed technique which landed him Scottish titles in slalom and giant slalom. However, he plans to hang up his race skis at the end of this season.

Over the past three years, racing independently on the European FIS circuit and at the British Championships, he has beaten numerous British Alpine Team skiers and won awards as the most promising non-team athlete in Britain.

After two years on the Scottish team he was tipped for British team selection and ranked as the young pool's best prospect. With the benefit of hindsight he is currently ruing his decision to follow his belief that, if the likes of Ronald Duncan and Martin Bell could take seven years to peak, he could afford to spend time away from skiing to complete a Business Studies degree.

Since then he has spent his time racing hard all over Europe and constantly knocking on the back door of British team selection.

To an extent, the fact his pleas have largely been ignored reflects the financial constrictions for the British Ski Team. Although there were never any real goals set for him that might negate the perceived age barrier, he is still sure he could match the standard for a good Olympic selection in 1998 given the right support.

He firmly believes young skiers can and should look to local businesses for small scale sponsorships and that they can work well for both parties. More to the point, it requires dedication on the part of the athlete, establishing a good working relationship with local press and radio.

ROSS GREEN

n.UNDER the watchful eye of his mother, five-year-old Ross Green's early potential was recognised by the instruction staff on the equally diminutive Polmonthill Ski Slope near Falkirk. Now, at 18, coming to the end of his third year at the Austrian Ski Academy in Whithoeven, near Vienna, he was one of the three Scots selected for the four-strong men's team for the World Junior Championships last week in Schwyz, Switzerland. Last year he took an unprecedented tenth place at the Youth Olympics.

Throughout his career to date he has shared the British age-group spoils with his three World Juniors Team colleagues. Now he aims for podium finishes in all disciplines at the British Junior Championships and as a member of the KPMG Scottish Alpine team take a few full British Team ``scalps'' at the Senior event to ensure selection to the British Alpine Team for next year.

John Clark, the KPMG Scottish Team head coach, says: ``Although it pains me to say it both as a father and a coach living on the doorstep of Cairngorm ski area there is still no better way to get good training and the time on snow than to go to the likes of an Austrian or Norwegian ski academy. It shouldn't be the case and with new college set-ups in this country and the likes we're certainly moving in the right direction, but it is still the case.

``I don't believe it's good for the kids' personal development to be away from home for so long from a young age.''

ANDREW FRESHWATER

n.LOCKED in a battle with Oxford based Dan Walker for the number two downhill spot on the British team, this has been a frustrating season for 22-year-old Speyside bred Andrew Freshwater. Selected for last year's cancelled World Championships, he has suffered from a lack of races this season to make the selection criteria again, and was overlooked in favour of Walker for the rescheduled Sierra Nevada event.

He made the grade almost on the eve of the championships but instead of arguing his case to go to Spain elected instead to race downhills and Super G in America to try to improve his world ranking place.

A succession of different coaches and the fragmenting of this season's proposed Men's Europa Cup Speed team programme, which would have been a key part of Freshwater's season's devlopment, has made progress hard.

Living on the shores of Loch Insh where his family run the watersports and outdoor centre there, he gained a strong foundation in the technical skills of slalom and giant slalom racing and training locally with the Cairngorm Ski Club, winning national regional races through his early career and progressing to British team selection two years ago. His strength, size and fitness are becoming a growing asset in his downhiller's armoury.