British skiing veteran Dave Ryding brought the curtain down on his Winter Olympics career with a 17th place finish in his fifth and final Games, bowing theatrically to the crowd after his last run.
Only 44 of 96 racers on the start list completed their first run amid heavy snowfall in Bormio, with Ryding producing a relatively conservative first run to lie in 20th place.
Giant slalom gold medallist Lucas Pinheiro Braathen and former world silver medallist Manuel Feller were among the big names to DNF on their first run, with Ryding’s teammate Laurie Taylor another to fall short on the Stelvio piste.
But Ryding, the only British skier to ever win a World Cup race, kept his cool and produced a better run in more manageable conditions on his second outing, finishing in 1:57.48 – 3.87 seconds off the winning time – before bowing to the crowd.
Teammate Billy Major was in 13th place after the first run but dropped to 16th.
Ryding said: “I took it year by year and then this year day by day, and I managed to get here to give myself a chance. I wanted to stay in the fight.
“I think I was quoted as saying I’ll ski race until my legs fall off, and I think they pretty much have, so no regrets. I will never look back thinking what if, did I stop too soon? I gave it my all until the last gate and I think that’s the sort of representation of my career.
“If I was looking back I’d do it all again. I know my story was totally unique and I didn’t grow up in the Alps, but I would still do it again and it’s given me so much.
“I really can’t ask for much more. The icing on the cake would have been to pull something out today, but I just didn’t quite have it, so it’s bittersweet.”
Ryding is planning to return to the World Cup after the Olympics, with this his final season on the circuit, but did not fully commit to competing again. He said: “I’ll see if I can get off the sofa – I need to go home and just relax.”
After Huw Nightingale and Charlotte Bankes won Team GB’s first ever Olympic gold on snow in the mixed team snowboard cross on Sunday, Ryding believes the nation has potential to win in Alpine skiing in the future. He said: “I really think the next 15 years, Billy and Laurie and then the generation after Billy and Laurie are already world junior medalists, so I would put a bit of money on it saying that it is possible.
“It’s unbelievably hard and competitive in slalom. It’s probably the most competitive and anything can happen on the day, but the next generation is unbelievable. I will do everything I can to keep the support going for the next generation.”
Norway’s Atle Lie McGrath had led after the first run but he seemed to struggle under the pressure, clipping a gate and losing his timing early in the second, launching a ski pole off the course and collapsing into the snow in frustration.
The 25-year-old has had a difficult Games after his grandfather passed away on the night of the Opening Ceremony. Ryding told the BBC afterwards: “First and foremost, I hope he’s all right mentally because he’s been through the wars the past week.”
His DNF handed the gold medal to Switzerland’s reigning slalom world champion Loic Meillard, who completed the set of medals from this Games after bronze in the giant slalom and silver in the team Alpine combined.
Austria’s Fabio Gstrein took silver, 0.35 seconds off the pace, and Norway’s Henrik Kristoffersen bronze, 1.13 seconds back.
39-year-old Ryding grew up training on dry slopes in Pendle in his native Lancashire, in very different circumstances to the majority of athletes he would later race against, and made his debut on the World Cup circuit – the top level of ski racing – in 2009.
He achieved his first World Cup podium finish on the legendary Kitzbuhel course in 2017, following that up with a first-ever win for a British skier five years later at the same venue.
His sixth-place finish at the World Championships in 2025 marked the best result for a British male skier since 1934; his best Olympic result remains ninth in slalom in Pyeongchang 2018.
Ryding told The Independent before announcing his retirement: “It was always about competing with the best, proving myself week in, week out, and showing the nation that it was possible, from the UK, to have a career in the top 15 like mine, going into its 10th year. No one’s ever come close to doing that.”
His win in Kitzbuhel is the highlight of his career. He said: “Not just because I won it, but it also showed the persistence [required], because I was the oldest-ever first time winner of any World Cup, oldest-ever winner of a slalom, never mind the first Brit. To tick that box was more than what I dreamed of as a kid. I just wanted to be in the top 30 so I could compete in second runs and be on television! Never did I imagine that I would be in a position to win.”
Ed Drake, a former teammate of Ryding’s at the Vancouver 2010 Olympics and now a commentator and expert on TNT Sports, told The Independent: “Dave’s probably one of the most determined athletes I’ve ever met. He is very single-minded, as well documented that if you’re going to be successful, you need to be relatively selfish in a good way, hugely determined. He’s a real example for that side, which is great for Billy and Laurie because they’ve seen firsthand what you need to do.
“He’s a history maker. You talk about ski racing and any skier knows who Dave is, and any little kid knows that this British guy has done it, and I think, it doesn’t matter if a Swiss guy wins a World Cup or Olympic Games or podiums or whatever. But a Brit doing it is immense and he’s trailblazed the way for the next generation. Somebody’s got to be the first, Dave’s the first person to do it and then all of a sudden it can be done.”
