(02-14-2026, 11:17 AM)Old Fart Wrote:

(02-14-2026, 08:32 AM)HeggebøsBarnDoor Wrote: I just don't understand how you get into that as a sport. Well unless you're holding a dinner tray whilst fooling around with a mate, who then pushes you down the slope and you somehow find out you're good at avoiding death.

he says that he was a Taekwondo champion but had a bad injury which stopped him competing. 

He saw an open day advertised  inviting anyone to come and be assessed for a suitable sport.  They then send the results away and your particular profile of strength, size, sprinting speed, weight etc is matched against a list of specific requirements to excel at a particular sport.

The results came back that he was ideally suited to bombing down an ice shute at 90 mph on a tea tray so he joined the UK team to train specifically for that,   and the rest is history.

He was also a very good rugby union player and a self-confessed adrenalin junkie.  I have to say the training regime shown on BBC yesterday was gruelling.  A lot of very heavy weight lifting particularly squats which is why all competitors have Jo Brand sized thighs ( that's illustrative rather than a confirmed fact).