World Alpine Ski Championships: Dave Ryding records best finish by British man since 1934
2025-02-16
Category: sports

Dave Ryding sealed Britain's best men's World Alpine Ski Championships result since 1934 by finishing sixth in the slalom.The 38-year-old's previous-best placing at the World Championship was ninth.Ryding is the first British man to finish in the top six since CS Hudson who was fifth 91 years ago."It means a lot," he said. "It just shows that you never give up and you keep fighting."It's probably my last World Champs. I really wanted to take it in and enjoy it and that's what I did. It's been a good day."Ryding was 13th after his first run of the day in Saalbach, Austria, but climbed the standings after a superb second run.Switzerland's Loic Meillard took gold, Norway's Atle Lie McGrath claimed silver and Germany's Luis Strasser won bronze. Ryding was emotional after the race and thanked his wife Mandy, saying: "I couldn't do it without having such a strong partner at home. She is the reason I still do it."Ryding, the first British man to win an event at the Ski World Cup in 2022, has represented Great Britain at four Winter Olympics and is not ruling out a fifth."If you'd have asked me before the second run, I'd have wanted to punch you, but I don't know!" he said."It's getting really difficult, but somehow I'm still able to put out good performances."I trust in my technique and I've worked a lot on that so I think that's why I can still do it at my age because I'm very solid but it's a long way away."The next Winter Games take place in February 2026 in Milan-Cortina, Italy.