‘Jamie Ritblat Award for Achievement’ Winners wowed by their week ski racing with Olympian Chemmy Alcott and partner Dougie Crawford

Four young ski-racers-in-the-making have just returned from a week away in Hintertux, Austria, after winning the exclusive opportunity to train with Winter Olympian, Chemmy Alcott, and her husband Dougie Crawford, at their most recent CDC Performance camp. Thomas Rascagneres (16) from Cheshire, David Cameron (14) from Tamworth, and Aimee Hudgell (18) and Lois Saunders (18), two inner-city apprentices from the innovative youth charity Snow-Camp, were narrowed down as the top candidates to join the camp, with all costs covered by principal sponsor of British Ski and Snowboard, Delancey.

The four childrens' applications for the ‘Jamie Ritblat Award for Achievement’ had been narrowed down by CDC Performance and Delancey for being the most deserving to join the camp based on their keen enthusiasm and determination to succeed in their snowsports careers. Each of the children were flown from their UK hometowns to the Austrian ski resort last week to join sixteen other 12-18 year olds on the seven day ski racing camp. Despite all coming from different ski backgrounds, each of the children left saying they felt they had challenged themselves and improved at varying aspects over the course of the week.

At the end of the camp week, Chemmy Alcott commented: “We couldn’t have asked for more motivated and inspirational winners to join us last week. Despite the varied abilities and different goals in their snowsports future, all embraced the challenge and thrived through their experience. Being part of their daily development and witnessing first hand both their technical improvements and also surge in confidence and self-belief was fantastic for all their coaches. Also having the added benefit of Lois and Aimee from Snow-Camp help educate the rest of our team on the amazing opportunity they have and how fortunate they are to be able to follow their own ski dreams.”

Of the four award winners, David Cameron was noticed to be one of the stand-outs on the camp because of his positive attitude and sheer determination to absorb as much from the experience as possible. Having only discovered skiing last year, David has since completed all nine levels of UK Snowlife, raced in three ski races and been invited to join the GB Ski X Home Nations Academy. David said he found the whole week to be a rewarding and challenging learning experience. He emphasized the camp “doesn’t just teach you the skiing, you learn discipline and things like that, like getting up early in the morning and getting you moving about, like the fitness and the activation.”

David also thanked Delancey for the opportunity to go on the CDC Performance camp, and said: “I think I’ve had one of the best experiences in my life at the moment really to date. It’s been really good and I definitely want to come again. Thank you for opening it up to me – going on a CDC Camp.”

The two girls in the group of four chosen, Lois and Aimee, were both picked from the charity Snow-Camp for being the most deserving inner-city graduates in the programme. Both girls, who have never participated in ski racing before, were thrilled to be chosen to join the snowsport athletes. Aimee said “[I feel like I’ve achieved] quite a lot, because some days I was struggling quite a bit because I’ve only been away only once. I was pretty much on blue slopes the whole time and I haven’t really been on red slopes so I was quite nervous at first. Now today I felt I’ve built a whole lot more confidence on the slopes and I’m starting to carve now too.”  Lois, who also felt like she had pushed herself to her limits, said to Delancey: “I just want to say a thank you for giving me this opportunity to come out with everyone and having a new experience with different skiing.”

Thomas Rascagneres, the most experienced of the chosen four, has already been on multiple ski racing camps. He is already member of the U18 Alpine Development Squad and has won several ski champion titles during his ski career including the British Indoor Under 18 Alpine Series Champion, Overall British Indoor Skier-Cross Champion, Youth Scottish Outdoor Skier-Cross Champion, Independent Schools Under 18 Ski Champion and Highest Ranked YOB British Indoor Ski Racer. When asked how he found the overall experience on the CDC Performance Camp, Thomas said: “It’s been great. I’ve really enjoyed the opportunity to ski in a new resort that I’ve never skied in before. I think it’s been great getting to know new people, ski with different coaches and basically get a different feel.”

He followed by saying, “I just want to say a big thank you because it’s been really great that I’ve been able to come out here, because without Delancey I wouldn’t have been able to come out and Delancey have made me it possible for me to ski for an extra week – that might be the extra week that takes a fraction off a second that I needed, or give me a different outlook on skiing that I needed to progress further into FIS, so a massive thank you to them and it’s been a massive help for me.”