Alex Tilley: Slalom Racer, Beijing 2022
Alex Tilley, British slalom specialist and two-time Winter Olympian (Pyeongchang 2018, Beijing 2022). How she returned to form to earn her place.
Getting to an Olympic Games is never straightforward. Getting there after returning to form, rebuilding results, requalifying, proving fitness and form on a circuit that does not wait, is considerably harder. Alex Tilley competed at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics in the women’s slalom, having previously appeared at the 2018 Pyeongchang Games, and having done exactly that: returned to form to secure her place and then hold it through to the Games.
Tilley has operated within the British Alpine squad as a slalom specialist, competing on the Europa Cup and World Cup circuits. Her path to Beijing required a return to form following a period on the sidelines, and the qualification for the Games represented a sustained effort to maintain the level required.
Beijing 2022
The 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics slalom was held on the National Alpine Ski Centre venue, a technical course in conditions that had challenged the field throughout the Games. Competing in the slalom against the world’s best technical skiers, Tilley took part in an event that had become one of the most anticipated of the Games following Mikaela Shiffrin’s early exits in other disciplines.
She was part of a British women’s alpine contingent that included Charlie Guest, an experienced member of the British team. The two racing at the same Games represents a continuity of British women’s slalom on the international circuit, a slender thread, but a real one.
The Programme
Tilley has been part of the GB World Cup squad, competing in a slalom programme that requires year-round training, Europa Cup racing to maintain ranking, and the commitment to operate as a professional athlete in a country that provides limited sporting infrastructure for alpine ski racing. The British programme has improved over the Ryding era, but the fundamental challenge, no home terrain, limited budget, a small national squad, remains the same as it has always been.
Her Olympic participation is the milestone that stands in the public record. The years of Europa Cup racing, the training camps, the season-by-season work to maintain the level: that is what made Beijing possible.