Slalom heartbreak sparks McGrath’s trudge to the woods as Ryding bids farewell

Team GB’s Dave Ryding said farewell to the Winter Olympics with 17th place, while Loic Meillard took gold after Atle Lie McGrath crashed out

As the Rocket zigged and zagged for a fifth and final time at a Winter Olympics on Monday, another skier made a very different kind of exit.

Coming into the final run of the men’s slalom, the Norwegian Atle Lie McGrath knew that victory was there for the taking – until he straddled a gate. Gold was gone. A heartbroken McGrath – who had hoped to deliver victory in honour of his grandfather who died on the day of the opening ceremony – threw his poles as far as he could and trudged across the slope into the woods.

TV footage then captured him lying on his back, occasionally putting his hands over his face on the side of the course.

It meant that Loïc Meillard became Switzerland’s first men’s Olympic slalom champion since 1948 with a combined time of 1min 53.61sec – although he had a few words for McGrath.

“Atle Lie would have deserved it as well, he was the best skier this season, but that’s part of slalom, that’s part of sport,” he said after edging Fabio Gstrein of Austria by 0.35sec, while Henrik Kristoffersen of Norway took bronze.

Meanwhile British eyes also naturally turned to Dave “Rocket” Ryding and his legacy after he called it a day with a few pithy words. “I said I would ski race until my legs fall off and I think they pretty much have,” he said.

His 17th-placed finish in the men’s slalom here in Bormio wasn’t quite the swansong the 39-year-old had intended. But sometimes legacy matters as much as medals. And Ryding leaves the slopes as undoubtedly Britain’s greatest skier, after an unlikely journey that started by dodging sheep on a 50m dry-ski slope in Pendle, Lancashire.

“I did it a totally different way and you probably say it was a one in a million shot,” he said. “But I proved that you can do it.”

UK Sport might think differently, but not all Winter Olympic events are created equal. In some sports, having a tech advantage can mean that a competitor has one hand on a medal before they even start. While in others, like slalom skiing, the heritage and depth of competition matters.

So when Ryding became the only Briton to win a World Cup skiing event in Kitzbuhel four years ago it counts as something out of the ordinary.

“Five-time Olympian, World Cup winner - I really can’t ask for much more,” he said. “The icing on the cake would have been to pull something out today. I just didn’t quite have it to be honest. But I will never look back thinking, ‘did I stop too soon?’ I gave it my all until the last gate.”

Skiing has a reputation for being a posh sport, but Ryding is anything but. His dad was a market trader. His mother a hairdresser. And when he started at the age of six, sometimes the sheep would run across him while he was training. On other occasions they would leave excrement that would cause him to slip.

Indeed it was only when he was 12 that Ryding tried skiing on snow for the first time – after his working-class parents promised they would take their first family skiing holiday if he and his sister, Jo, got to a decent level.

Even this fifth Olympics was a struggle to get to. In 2022, UK Sport completely cut skiing’s funding, and while they then relented and gave Ryding £80,000 a year - he decided it would be better spent helping his team mates, including Billy Major, who finished 16th, travel to events.

And while he is retiring, Ryding insists that he wants to stay in the sport and bring through the next wave of British skiers - and help them becoming World Cup winners too.

“I’ve proven that you can win on the World Cup and I really think the next 15 years, with Billy and Laurie and then the generation, can do it,” he said.

“I would put a bit of money on it saying that it is possible. It’s unbelievably hard and competitive in slalom,’ he added. “It’s probably the most competitive of most events. And anything can happen on the day, but the next generation is unbelievable.

“We have Youth Olympic and World Junior Championship medals so the next generation is amazing,” he added. “And I really hope UK Sport sees that and gets behind them. I will do everything I can to keep the support going for the next generation.”

“I’ve got to combine it with family life, because my wife and daughter sacrificed me being away a bit too much. So if I can do it remotely as well and be some kind of mentor and coach that’s where I’ll start.”

Meanwhile Ryding has already set his sights on a new target: lowering his parkrun personal best of 16:54. “For sure, I don’t think I’ll get a dad bod too soon,” he added.