Alcott beaming after 11th-place finish women's Olympic downhill

Chemmy Alcott is Britain's best female skier at the Turin Games bar none.

Photo: Alcott beaming after 11th-place finish women's Olympic downhill

She's the only one.

On Wednesday, Alcott gave Britain's ski team its best Olympic result in nearly 40 years by finishing 11th in the women's downhill.

"I'm so stoked. I just pulled that out of the bag," Alcott said. "I did not think that was coming."

Her best previous finish was ninth in a World Cup downhill at Cortina d'Ampezzo in 2004.

"That was two years ago and I've got to stop dwelling on that. Now I've got something else to dwell on," Alcott said. "The Olympics is special, people pull it out."

The last time a female British skier did better was at the 1968 Grenoble Games when Gina Hathorn finished fourth in slalom.

"If I could choose an event to pull it out on it would be the downhill," Alcott said. "Because it's dangerous and people can get hurt. That's why the British love it. We're all sadists at heart."

In the offseason, Alcott trains with the British men.

"That's awesome, it's a really competitive environment. I've got three older brothers so I've been around guys my entire life," she said.

During the season, Alcott's on her own, traveling the World Cup circuit with an Austrian coach.

"I'd really like teammates to push me along," she said. "You see the Americans and Austrians, if they're winning against each other, then they're winning the event", reports AP.

O.Ch.