Dave Ryding: After 'crazy' Kitzbuhel win, it's great to see skiing go 'mainstream'

"Crazy," says Dave Ryding, Britain's newest sporting hero after he won GB's first ever World Cup race at Kitzbuhel on Saturday 22 January.

The reaction surprised even him, "alpine skiing became the mainstream sport on Sunday," he tells Olympics.com, "I actually got sent a newspaper from Fiji with me on the front of it!

'Britain's Ryding skis into history,' and 'BRITON ROCKETS INTO THE RECORD BOOKS' screamed the front pages of the Sunday papers back home.

And the tremors from were felt even keener in the big ski nations, German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeiting captured the moment with: 'Ein Brite? Ein Brite!':

“A Brit? A Brit!”

Between the monumental achievement in Kitzbuhel and Ryding's incredible journey from dry slopes in northern England to here, it captured the imagination and put alpine skiing in the spotlight.

"It was crazy. A lot of emotion," he says. But it also brought a new expectation, and when he raced three days later, things didn't go to plan.

Ryding finished 20th in Tuesday's night race in Schladming, the final World Cup slalom before the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games and one headline read 'Ryding fails to repeat Kitzbuhel heroics.'

"It took me 97 World Cups to win one and then everybody expects me to win the next one too," laughs Ryding, "no, they're going to have to wait another 97, or for the next person, you know?"

"It was too much emotion to process before another race, to be honest, I'd rather not have had to race on Tuesday night as well."

Schladming "slapped me back to reality," he says, "which is maybe what I needed before China."

Dave Ryding: My odds for Beijing 2022 have shortened

"Maybe it was nice to be slapped back down so that when I get to China, it's back to the grindstone," he continues, "you put in the normal work you always would. And that's what gets you the success."

Back at Kitzbuhel after his big win, two-time Olympic medallist Henrik Kristoffersen said 'now you're the favourite for gold in Beijing,' but the British skier doesn't agree.

"That's just Henrik trying to put the pressure off himself because he knows he'll have an awful lot of pressure to deal with," the 35-year-old Ryding says with a laugh.

"He is definitely one of the favorites but I've won one (FIS World Cup event) this year. He hasn't. So yeah, I don't agree, but obviously my odds will have shortened and that's normal, that's natural.

The northerner knows that gold is up for grabs in China, coming in the middle of one of the most unpredictable slalom seasons ever.

"No other season I can remember being like this one," he continues.

"There's so many different guys on the podium or even in the top ten, and the top ten's really close to the podium. So honestly, it's anyone's game."

Now even on the British team Ryding has competition, 25-year-old teammate Billy Major was 18th in Schladming, two places above him.

"He's been fantastic," Ryding says, "one of the reasons why I'm getting these results. I get pushed absolutely every single training session to to be the fastest, I have to ski my best."

So what are Dave Ryding's aims going into the Beijing Games?

"My aim is just to ski well. I have no I have no goals other than to ski well and let my skiing do the talking, and then we'll see."

Beyond results and medals, Ryding is delighted by the coverage the sport has gotten because of his story, and hopes it inspires the new generation to raise up British skiing even higher.

"It's just great that the sport's in the mainstream media for the next generation. That's the important thing. And I think now I can I can say I've done my job to try and inspire the next Alain Baxter, Dave Ryding, Chemmy Alcott...

"And once I finish, I can sit back and watch them."