Jamaican Olympic alpine skier Benjamin Alexander joins Cheddar News to discuss his first Olympic appearance and creating more opportunities for diversity in the sport.

Between Bells

Benjamin Alexander on Being Jamaica's First Olympic Alpine Skier 

we went between bells on cheddar news. I'm baker machado in new york and after putting on a pair of skis for the very first time in his life? Six years ago? One british Jamaican skier did the unthinkable. He qualified and then competed in the Winter Games. Benjamin alexander is Jamaica's first olympic alpine skier and though he didn't medal, he still made history and hopes his appearance will inspire more inclusion at the Winter Games. So we're very excited to be joined right now by Benjamin alexander, Jamaican olympic alpine skier. Benjamin is such a pleasure to have you here. Welcome to cheddar news. Thank you very much. Thanks for having me. So congrats on competing in the Winter Games. I mean your story really fascinating because most people, they train all their lives for this sport, but you went from deejaying to skiing. When did you realize that you wanted to take up this sport here? Look, I had the first chance to see people ski back in Christmas of 2015 and um, you know, I saw my friends turn into superheroes by plunking on these skis and disappearing off the ridge line and I decided there and then that I wanted to be able to at least be able to keep up with them. And so I had my first lesson at the beginning of 2016 almost. I think it's exactly my six year anniversary today actually. Do you remember that first time you you got on skis. What was that first lesson like, was it, was it a mess or were you amazing Your first time? I was a complete mess first of all, I was very drunk and still hungover before I was in whistler as a DJ. Um, and then after having left my lesson, I went out by myself and I felt 27 times on my very first run and it was just a green, like, you know, like a bunny slope basically. But as an engineering graduate, I viewed that as a baseline from which I should improve upon and I just kept repeating that very same green run to kind of remove the variables and just finished my day, having fallen only seven times on that run. Okay, so based off of that being your first experience, what was your friends and your family members reaction when you told them, hey, this thing that I just took up, you know, I'm gonna, I'm gonna do this competitively now. Uh, you know, it sounds as crazy as it sounds when you say it right now, nothing has changed. I think a lot of them, I think a lot of people didn't believe that I would be able to be able to do it, but I'm kind of a determinate ID guy when I, when I set my mind to something and so, you know, I see 450 days over the last two years to get this thing over the finish line and it would have been many more, had it not been for the fact that the pandemic, shut access to the southern hemisphere. So it's been a long slog? Lots of people didn't think it was possible, but but here we are. But you did it, which is all the more amazing. So how were you able to find a coach? And basically, what was the roadmap that you got from starting out on all of this to then get into the olympics? That is amazing. Right? So the International Olympic Committee wants to have as many nations participate as possible in the winter games. And so what they do is they said be criteria through which each country can send one female and one male athlete. Now this be criteria is never going to be competitive with even the top 30 athletes but it's kind of an entry that is a level, that means that you are of a certain level of professionalism and you're not going to kill yourself in front of a billion eyeballs. And so I said about finding coaching and currently here in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, where I spent about a year out of the last two. But really what pushed me over the line was moving into the ALps and spending a lot of time with the Austrian, some of the best skiers in the world and some of the best coaches to get to that be criteria qualification. Okay, so this is so fascinating because Benjamin, you were born in Britain, your training in Jackson Hall, your training all over the world yet. You're competing as part of the Jamaican team. What made you choose to be part of the Jamaican team here? Right, look, so I'm mixed race. My father is black Jamaican, my mother is white english. And so all the mixed race people know that you always represent the minority of any group you're in at any given moment in time. So to my white friends and the black guy into my black friends and the white guy or Carlton from the Fresh Prince of Bel Air. Now we all know that skiing is a predominantly white pursuit. And so I would be the black representative and my friends knowing about my Jamaican heritage would always be making the jokes about cool runnings, the Jamaican bobsled to you And you should go to the Olympics. And so in 2018 I went to the Olympics as a spectator, realized there were only three athletes and representation for a country that is a powerhouse in the summer games. And the seed of an idea was formed there. Um and also I think representing Jamaica is just cool. There's something incredible about the presence that Jamaica has in the summer games. And even though we haven't had any success yet in the Winter Games, Jamaica just has such a presence as a nation at the olympic games period. Absolutely. The Jamaican bobsled team that 1998 team. So amazing. I mean, I think all of us have either seen actual footage of them or watched cool runnings at least once in our lives. But let's walk through the Games this year in particular because the run you did, you placed 46th overall, just 69.7 seconds behind Switzerland's gold medalist. Let's talk about your strategy here. And what was sort of the experience like on the, you know, skiing in china here. Right, well, thank you for saying just 69 seconds, it was an absolute eternity behind the guys. But let's talk about strategy for, for myself and for the other small nations that are coming to compete, we are not going to be competitive with the top 30. And so my strategy, given that our weather, the weather conditions were horrendous. It was the biggest snow dump that they've had in eight years. My strategy was really survival. I wanted Jamaica to have a, you know, a mark on the board, an athlete that had finished in alpine skiing for us to improve upon in the future. And so even though it took me an eternity to get down unlike 40 plus other athletes, some of the best in the world. I finished um, the conditions are really challenging. Look, we've seen Michaela struggle out there. We've seen some of the best athletes in the world just struggling these conditions. The young Queen Village where the alpine races were hosted doesn't get that much snow, you know, ironically, we had so much snow on that one day. But you know, on an average year, it gets less snow than the city of London, England. So yeah, it was, it was, it was a new experience for, for everyone. And that's why some of the best people in the world struggle. Well, the other thing I love about what you've done here is we know, you know, diversity and inclusion, especially in the Winter Games is incredibly low. Do you feel like things that you're doing here, especially representing Jamaica in skiing? That is helping situations like this where the Winter Games where we don't see a lot of diversity inclusion. Yeah, absolutely. Look, so the International Olympic Committee is incredibly proud that this year there were 85 flags and representation of the winter games, but that's still incredibly short of the 205 flags that are represented at the summer games. And there's a reason for that. First of all, we need to be geographically less than being the mountains that have great snow conditions and nearly every single winter sport is incredibly expensive by virtue of the equipment that is required. So I feel like my story is kind of flying the flag for diversity black history month. Now. Um, at the end of the, my second run, I said that we should be trying to get more people more different backgrounds, more diverse backgrounds into winter sports and try to change the game because honestly, if the winter sports is just about 10 countries that can meddle and 10 countries that can have success the rest of the world gets bored and they, you know, they spend money looking at other things and eventually it kind of dies. So I'm really excited for this to be a line in the sand, not only for Jamaica to have an alpine ski racer going forward at every games from here on, but for other small nations to look at what I've been able to do in going from zero to Olympian in six years. Having had my first race just two years ago, there are many other athletes out there that have been skiing since a much younger age than I had the opportunity to start. But could also get to the next olympics. And I want to see many more countries at 2026 in Italy. Amen me as well. Which by the way, I'm glad you mentioned the 2026 games in Milan. Are you already thinking yes, I want to partake in this. This was so amazing. I have to do this again. Are you already looking at the next olympics? Yeah, look, I'm gonna be at the next couple of olympic games. I won't be in a race suit. I'll be in a business suit and hoping to become the president of Jamaican Ski federation and I've already identified the half, half a dozen athletes that have been skiing since a very young age that have Jamaican heritage that could offer a much better representation from a performance basis than I ever could. Um, and so I'm already working on what I'm certain is going to be the biggest news story of 2026 as it pertains the Jamaican alpine ski team. Well, either way, congratulations on an amazing moment for you in your life and your career. Benjamin alexander, Jamaican olympic alpine skier joining us here on cheddar news.