Olympics.com profiled Benjamin Alexander, Jamaica’s first Olympic alpine skiier.
The UK-born former DJ and financier chose the birth country of his father and spoke to Olympics.com about his early life, making history, and getting through gruelling qualification to be an inspiration for other Jamaicans to take up skiing.
It was on a trip to Canada in 2015 that Alexander’s interest in skiing was sparked. Invited on a Christmas heli-skiing trip with a party of 30, the then 32-year-old had no intention of going skiing. He was enjoying the beauty of the mountains for the first time – usually he’d head to warmer climes – and he was there to DJ, to party. But following a long lunch, as Alexander and the other ‘house cats’ headed back to the chalet, the more athletic souls strapped on their skis and slid off down the mountain.
“They were almost like superheroes putting on these skis and snowboards and just disappearing at the end of lunch,” says Alexander now. Then and there he decided next time he came back he was going to join them.
This interview was done before he competed in the alpine skiing and later finished in 46th place.
See also: Samuel Ikpefan, the only Nigerian athlete at Beijing 2022, Arif Khan, the only Indian athlete at Beijing 2022, and Erin Jackson: the first Black woman to win individual gold at Winter Olympics