Charlie Raposo: Britain's Long-Awaited GS Points
Charlie Raposo became one of the first British men in many years to score World Cup GS points, and did it twice in two consecutive days at Kranjska Gora.
The gap was a long one. No British male alpine ski racer had managed to score World Cup points in giant slalom for decades before Raposo arrived. The discipline had simply been beyond British reach at that level. The technical demands of GS, combined with the years of volume training that the top nations build from childhood, had kept the World Cup points zone out of reach.
Raposo ended that. At Kranjska Gora in Slovenia, competing in the giant slalom, he broke through into the top thirty, the points threshold on the World Cup, becoming one of the first British men in many years to score GS points. The following day, on the same course, he did it again. Two consecutive days of World Cup GS points: a rare achievement for a British GS racer.
Born 15 January 1996, Raposo came through the British Alpine programme and established himself as a leading figure in domestic GS racing, winning the British title multiple times and holding the position of highest-ranked British male GS racer for an extended run of seasons. That run of national dominance, combined with his World Cup breakthrough, represented a level of sustained excellence in a discipline where British racing had historically been most competitive in slalom rather than the longer-radius gates of GS.
The Circuit
His World Cup career was built around the Europa Cup and World Cup circuits through the early 2020s, developing the speed and precision required to compete in GS at the top level. The breakthrough at Kranjska Gora confirmed what his Europa Cup results had suggested: his GS was at a standard that could trouble World Cup fields on the right course on the right day.
The British titles were never in doubt by the time he was at his peak. The question was always whether the World Cup level was achievable. Kranjska Gora answered it.
The Injury
In March 2024, competing in Aspen, Raposo suffered a severe knee injury. The recovery timelines for that type of injury in alpine racing are long, and the rehabilitation window, set against the competitive calendar and his age, made a return to the World Cup circuit uncertain. He retired from racing in 2024, at twenty-eight, a year after producing the results that had confirmed his standing as the best British GS racer of his generation.
The Kranjska Gora results will stand as the defining achievement of his career. Two days of World Cup GS points, after a wait that had stretched across decades.