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Wednesday, 13 February, 2002, 00:43 GMT
British skiing's funding bias
BBC Sport's skiiing expert Martin Bell reflects on Carole Montillet's win in the women's downhill and the funding dilemma within British skiing.
What a great event it was but I have to say that Carole Montillet winning was a big upset.
It was reminiscent of Jean-Luc Cretier winning in the men's equivalent four years ago at Nagano.
Montillet definitely skied better than everybody else in the key sections where the turns were.
As regards the favourites, Isolde Kostner and Renate Goetschl, they were little bit too tight and you definitely don't ski as well if you are not relaxed.
It's a sport where if you try too hard then you go slower. You tend to dig your edges into the snow more abruptly meaning that there is less flow.
The Olympics certainly does add more pressure to the top world Cup stars
Regarding the now retired Picabo Street, I think she was right to give it a go despite her lowly final position.
There are very few racers who have come back to World Cup level like Picabo had, following her injury.
With our Briton Chemmy Alcott, we have a problem. Not with Chemmy herself, but with the funding she gets
Basically the problem is that the lottery funding is biased towards the Scottish racers and not the English, which is totally unfair.
It is a problem that has to be addressed.
But I have to also say that after Chemmy and our other top femnale racer Emma Carrick Anderson, there is a bit of gap to the next set of up-and-coming female racers.
Chemmy and Emma train separately from the rest of them, so they aren't really around to give the other girls something to aim at.
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