Ryding posts best British alpine skiing result for 30 years at Winter Olympics

It was supposed to be a men’s slalom battle for the ages between Austria’s Marcel Hirscher and the Norwegian Henrik Kristofferson – with a British skier in the mix for bronze.

Instead, when Hirscher lost control on his first run, and Kristofferson got tangled with a gate on his second, Sweden’s Andre Myhrer claimed a surprise gold.

Meanwhile Dave ‘The Rocket’ Ryding, who learned to ski on a dry slope in Pendle, Lancashire, was left to rue a spluttering first run as he finished ninth.

It was Britain’s best alpine skiing result for 30 years and thus a highly creditable result for Ryding, whose overall time of 1:40.16 was just 1.17 sec behind Myhrer.

However, he undoubtedly left himself with too much to do after a cautious first run saw him 1.37 sec back at halfway. “I had a couple of mistakes there that were a bit costly but the Olympics always give you a bit of the yips,” he admitted.

However, while Ryding is 31, he insists he is good enough to come back in Beijing four years’ time and win a medal having finished 17th in Sochi in 2014.

“I came to skiing really late so I’m still warming up,” he said. “I’m more than motivated to keep going – obviously a little tired, stressful this job, but more than motivated to keep going and keep improving. Myhrer is 35 and the last winner, Mario Matt, was also 35 and at the next Olympics I’m 35 so I’ll try to keep that trend going.”

Ryding also predicted that Britain could become a top skiing nation in eight years – provided there was extra investment in the sport.

“We’ve got to keep the structure and support,” he said. “It’s not easy, you’ve got to have the skills and in slalom it’s fine margins. It’s not an easy sport but I’m 100% sure if we keep working then why not.

“For a top five nation you’d have to say at least two Olympic cycles. You can never predict the future but look at the freestylers, and the alpine’s coming, it just takes time and patience.”