57 Facts About Dave Ryding

David Ryding was born on 5 December 1986 and is an English World Cup alpine ski racer who specialises in slalom.

Dave Ryding's best World Cup result was a victory in the 2022 Kitzbuhel slalom, the first victory for any British athlete at that level in Alpine skiing.

Dave Ryding grew up in Bretherton, Lancashire and attended Runshaw College and Bishop Rawstorne Church of England Academy.

Dave Ryding won his first British national senior title in 2008, defeating Alain Baxter, who was competing in his final British championships and whom Ryding described as his role model during his teenage years.

Dave Ryding has since gone on to win eight British Championship slalom titles.

Dave Ryding competed for Great Britain at the 2010 Winter Olympics in giant slalom, in which he finished 47th, and in slalom, in which he finished 27th.

Dave Ryding scored his first ever World Cup points in the opening slalom race of the 2013 season, finishing 26th place in Levi, Finland in November 2012.

Dave Ryding raced in the Europa Cup, considered the second tier of global ski racing, throughout the season, and won the season-long slalom title after finishing ninth in the final race of the season in Kranjska Gora.

Dave Ryding continued to race frequently in the World Cup and Europa Cup throughout the 2014 season, but failed to score any points in the former.

Dave Ryding competed at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, finishing 17th in the slalom at Rosa Khutor.

Dave Ryding followed this up with a 16th place in the Madonna di Campiglio slalom later that month, and three further top 30 finishes in the classic slalom races in Adelboden, Wengen and Schladming slaloms in January 2015.

Dave Ryding finished the 2015 season in 30th place in the slalom standings.

Dave Ryding started his campaign in the 2016 season with a 12th place finish at the opening slalom race of the season in Val-d'Isere in December 2015, his highest ever finish in the World Cup at the time.

Dave Ryding went on to qualify for the second run in every World Cup slalom race of the season and scored points in nine of the ten slalom races in 2016.

Consequently, Dave Ryding became the fourth Briton in World Cup history to qualify for the World Cup Finals, after Alain Baxter, Finlay Mickel and Alcott.

Dave Ryding finished 15th in the final race of the season in St Moritz, and ended the season in 22nd in the World Cup slalom standings.

Dave Ryding opened his 2017 season with a sixth place finish in the first slalom race of the World Cup season in Levi in November 2016, after finishing fourth on the first run.

Dave Ryding backed this up with two further top 20 finishes in Val-d'Isere and Madonna di Campiglio in December and a seventh place finish in Zagreb in January 2017, his second top ten in the World Cup.

Dave Ryding became only the second British man to finish on the podium in a World Cup ski race, after Konrad Bartelski, and only the fourth Briton to take a World Cup podium in history.

In February, Dave Ryding finished 11th in the slalom at the 2017 World Championships in St Moritz, the best result for a British skier at a World Championships since Finlay Mickel in 2005.

Dave Ryding had finished fourth after the first run, raising hopes of becoming the first British man to stand on a World Championship podium, but slipped down the standings on his second run.

Dave Ryding finished in the points in three of the remaining four World Cup races for the 2017 season, with a DNF in Kranjska Gora his only non-points scoring race.

Dave Ryding began his 2018 season at the opening slalom race of the World Cup in Levi in November 2017, and led the race after the first run.

Dave Ryding took his first top 10 finish of the season in the pre-Christmas slalom in Madonna di Campiglio, finishing sixth.

Dave Ryding competed in a parallel slalom in Oslo on New Year's Day 2018, where he repeated his fourth place finish from Stockholm the previous season, which would prove to be his highest finish of the season.

Dave Ryding's run to the semi-finals included knocking out overall World Cup champion Marcel Hirscher in the quarter-finals.

Dave Ryding ended the month with a 12th place in Schladming before the Olympics.

Dave Ryding competed at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyongchang, South Korea in the slalom, and was heavily touted as a potential British medal contender, including by former ski racer and pundit Graham Bell, with hopes of becoming Britain's first Olympic alpine skiing medallist.

Dave Ryding finished the first run of the slalom in 13th place, before moving up to finish ninth after the second run, exactly half a second outside of the medals.

Dave Ryding opened his season with a 12th place finish in the first slalom World Cup race of the season in Levi in November 2018, followed by 23rd in Saalbach in December.

Dave Ryding took one of the best World Cup results of his career so far in the slalom in Madonna di Campiglio later that month; after placing 27th in the first run, he set the fastest second run to finish fourth.

Dave Ryding lost out in the final to Marco Schwarz after missing a gate, but his second place equalled his career best World Cup result from 2017.

Dave Ryding followed this up with two further slalom top ten finishes in Wengen and Schladming later that month.

At the 2019 Alpine World Ski Championships in Are, Dave Ryding took his best ever World Championship result, finishing ninth in the slalom and setting the third-fastest time on the second run.

Dave Ryding placed ninth in the slalom World Cup standings for the 2019 season, having scored points in all but one of the season's 11 slalom races.

Dave Ryding failed to repeat that form throughout the rest of the season; despite scoring points in all of the remaining races and finishing in the top 20 in all but one race, his best finish came in January 2020, when he tied for seventh.

Dave Ryding followed this up later in the month with an eighth place finish in Schladming, before the season was cut short due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Dave Ryding finished 13th in the season slalom standings, his lowest finish since 2016.

The 2021 World Cup season calendar was heavily revised due to the ongoing pandemic, and Dave Ryding's season did not begin until late December 2020 in Alta Badia, where he finished in tenth in the opening slalom race of the season.

Dave Ryding finished outside of the top 20 in the next two races in Madonna di Campiglio and Zagreb.

In January, Dave Ryding took his third career World Cup podium in Adelboden and his first in classic slalom since 2017, finishing third after moving up from eighth after the first run, and was just 0.15 seconds behind winner Marco Schwarz.

Dave Ryding backed this up with a third top ten finish of the season in Flachau later that month, finishing in seventh, and finished in the top 15 in the second race in Flachau, as well as in Schladming and Chamonix.

At the 2021 World Championships in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Dave Ryding crashed out of the first run of the slalom, when he was just 0.12 seconds behind leader Adrian Pertl at the third intermediate time check, which would have placed Dave Ryding in second.

Dave Ryding's season ended inconspicuously with low points finishes in Kranjska Gora and Lenzerheide, and he finished 12th in the World Cup slalom standings.

Dave Ryding finished fifth in the opening slalom race of the season in Val-d'Isere in December 2021, his best ever result at the French resort.

Dave Ryding was on track to follow this up with another top five result in Madonna di Campiglio later that month, finishing fourth after the first run, but crashed out on the second run.

Dave Ryding crashed out again on the second run the next month in Adelboden.

On 22 January 2022, Dave Ryding took his first ever World Cup win in the slalom race in Kitzbuhel.

Dave Ryding was sixth after the first run, but jumped five positions in heavy snowfall in the second run This made him the first Briton ever to win a World Cup race and, at the age of 35, he became the oldest-ever winner of a World Cup slalom.

Dave Ryding was the first Briton to win at Kitzbuhel's Hahnenkamm Races since Gordon Cleaver's victory in the combined event at the first edition in 1931, before the establishment of the World Cup.

Dave Ryding closed his season by finishing outside of the points in the World Cup Finals in Courchevel, and ended the season in eighth in the World Cup slalom standings, equalling his best result from 2017.

At the 2023 World Championships in Courchevel, Dave Ryding finished 13th in the slalom, rising from 21st after the first run.

Ahead of the start of the 2024 World Cup season, Dave Ryding told the BBC that he had no intention of retiring, despite turning 37 during the season, and did not rule out competing at the 2026 Winter Olympics.

Dave Ryding's season opened in Gurgl in November 2023, where he finished fourth, his best ever start to a season.

Dave Ryding climbed 11 places on the second run to finish just 0.01 seconds behind Michael Matt in third.

Dave Ryding finished sixth in the slalom at the World Championships in Saalbach-Hinterglemm, Austria.

Dave Ryding's younger sister, Joanna, was a competitive skier who won several FIS Races before retiring after a crash in 2011.