News

FOLKESTONE SKI SLOPE INSPIRED OLYMPIC SKIER

An Olympic skier competing in Turin was inspired to start the sport after using the Folkestone dry ski slope.

A skier in the slalom event

A friend of Alexander Heath gave him a pencil box with a skier on it when he moved to Folkestone from South Africa, but he had never heard of the sport.

"I had never even seen snow," Heath said. "When I first tried it on a dry ski slope in Folkestone I fell in love with the sport because it was so different from anything else I had done."

Heath trained and raced with the British ski team, and has been representing South Africa internationally since the early 1990s.

"I owe my parents a lot because when I was 13 my father's job was meant to transfer back to South Africa and we had even sold our house," Heath said. "My parents were about to sign the contract, but I was doing so well with my skiing they decided it would be unfair to take me away from that."

Heath plans to ski in all the events in Turin; his best finish so far is a 27th place in Monday's giant slalom.