14 January 2010

Ski Sunday Presented By T Cupples

I was sitting in my local bar the other day waiting for my lunch to arrive.

Now that it’s a bit chilly outside I made sure I had a table deep inside with a view of the TV. On came the downhill skiing and it took me back 25 years or so when J and I would dash back from the shops on Saturday to watch the downhill races on the telly. And then on Sunday we’d watch Ski Sunday or whatever it was called and get another dose.

This wasn’t just an obscure liking for skiing. In those days J would organize an annual ski trip to some resort in Europe and would invariably end up sorting out flights, transfers and hotels for up to 40 people. Quite a task.

In 1990 we ended up at Meribel, one of France’s most popular resorts and a great time was had by all, as was normally the case.

During the week, it was quite obvious that something was about to happen on the slopes because quite a few of the runs down to the village were closed off but it became clear pretty quickly that a major race was about to take place and on the penultimate day of our holiday, crowds flocked into Meribel and headed for the lower slopes beside the closed off runs.

Huge banners went up proclaiming the World Ladies Downhill Giant Slalom and that day we skied in the morning but made sure we were in place after lunch when the racing started.

It was fascinating watching those ladies hurtle down from the top of the mountain at speeds I could only dream about (I was a bit of a flyer on skis myself) and then to see them only a few feet away in the enclosure, waving their skis at every camera to ensure maximum publicity for their sponsors.

During the week I had been my usual idiotic self, videoing every member of our group even whilst skiing and amazingly, despite a few crashes, usually into slower-moving Germans, my camera remained functional and I had taken it to the races to see if there was any interesting footage.

Suddenly the crowd went into an absolute frenzy. Carole Merle the French skier had just started her run. She’d won the World Cup Super G the previous year and was doing well again in 1990. To the French she was an absolute star and she wasn’t bad looking either!

As she flew down the mountain, the timers showed her to be leading and sure enough , as she crossed the line, slid to a halt in a flurry of snow and ice, she was so far ahead of the other skiers she was being proclaimed as the winner.

I pushed forward with my video camera to try and get a shot and suddenly I was pushed in the back and ushered into the enclosure with all the press and TV photographers. And there she was, just a few metres away. Well give a Glasgow boy an inch and he’ll take a mile so nothing ventured, nothing gained I started pushing my way to the front and within a few seconds, I was standing right in front of Carole Merle. It was quite surreal. All the other photographers seemed to disappear into the background. It was like I was the only one there – just me and Carole.

She looked at me. I looked at her. She looked at my video camera and that was that. A brief moment of glory – for me. Ms Merle went onto greater things after that.

From 1989 to 1992 she won the Super G World Cup four times in a row, in addition to the Giant Slalom World Cup in 1992 and 1993. At the 1989 World Championships in Vail she won a silver medal in the Giant Slalom, two years later at the 1991 World Championships in Saalbach she won another medal and at the1993 World Championships in Morioka she finally won the gold medal in the Giant Slalom. At the 1992 Olympics in Albertville she won a silver medal in the Super-G event.

PS – I’ve still got the video and wince with embarrassment every time I watch it!

No comments: