GB Snowsport has chosen three British athletes to compete in males’s slalom on the 2026 Winter Olympic Video games in Bormio subsequent month.
Nice Britain — Males’s Olympic Slalom Staff (Bormio 2026)
🇬🇧 Dave Ryding — YOB 1986 — Bretherton, England — HEAD
🇬🇧 Laurie Taylor — YOB 1996 — Basingstoke, England — HEAD
🇬🇧 Billy Main — YOB 1996 — Cambridge, England — HEAD
Dave Ryding (HEAD)
Born: 5/12/1986 – Bretherton, Lancashire, England
Olympic Pedigree & World Cup Winner
This will likely be Ryding’s fifth and ultimate Olympic Video games, having first featured as a 23-year-old with little or no expertise at Vancouver 2010. He went on to compete at Sochi 2014, PyeongChang 2018, and Beijing 2022.
His finest Olympic efficiency throughout his earlier 4 Video games was ninth place within the 2018 Olympic slalom, a end result the 39-year-old has made clear he would love to enhance on in Bormio.
Profession Highlights & Championship Success
His profession highlights embrace seven World Cup podiums — six in slalom and one in parallel — together with Britain’s solely alpine snowboarding World Cup victory, the 2022 Kitzbühel slalom. Ryding additionally recorded a sixth-place end within the World Championship slalom final February, one of the best British end result at a serious alpine championship this century.
Ryding mentioned, “It’s an actual honour to be chosen to symbolize Staff GB once more. I’m trying ahead to acting on the most important stage in entrance of a central European crowd for the primary time in my Olympic profession and I can’t wait to get on the market and into the motion.”
“I’ve by no means taken with no consideration what it means to symbolize my nation, and to have the possibility to compete for Nice Britain at an Olympic Video games for the fifth time is one thing I might solely have dreamed of after I went to my first Video games again in 2010,” he added.
“As everybody is aware of, that is my ultimate season of ski racing, and I’m going to present the whole lot I’ve bought to make my final Olympics my finest one,” Ryding mentioned. “I’m grateful to everybody who’s labored to assist me get right here, and I’m trying ahead to being a part of an unimaginable Staff GB delegation in Milano Cortina 2026.”
Bormio might mark an emotional farewell for probably the most profitable alpine skier Nice Britain has ever produced.
Laurie Taylor (HEAD)
Born: 2/10/1996 – Basingstoke, Hampshire, England
World Cup Consistency & Pure Velocity
Taylor now has greater than 70 World Cup begins to his title and returns to the Olympic stage eight years after ending twenty sixth at PyeongChang 2018, when he was simply 21 years previous.
There’s a perception all through British ski racing that Taylor has the potential to problem for medals, finest showcased by his fourth-place end in Levi earlier this season, a World Cup private finest for the 29-year-old.
Taylor has recorded 4 World Cup top-30 outcomes this season and owns two profession World Cup top-10 finishes. Subsequent month in Bormio, he’ll look to substantiate his place among the many world’s elite on the game’s greatest stage. This will likely be Laurie’s seventh main championship, with one profession top-30 end at World Championship or Olympic degree.
Taylor wrote on Instagram: “Honoured to be chosen to symbolize Nice Britain on the 2026 Milan Cortina Olympic Video games! A number of years older, and hopefully a little bit wiser than final time. It’s been a critical journey since then, and I’d prefer to thank everybody who’s supported me alongside the way in which.”
Billy Main (HEAD)
Born: 21/11/1996 – Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, England
World Cup Breakthrough & Olympic Return
Main’s World Cup breakthrough got here within the ultimate race of final season, when he recorded his first profession top-10 end with ninth place in Hafjell. This season, he has logged 4 World Cup top-30 outcomes, highlighted by seventeenth place in Gurgl.
This will likely be his second Olympic Video games, after competing in slalom at Beijing 2022, the place he was unable to finish the primary run. Main positioned fifteenth within the slalom eventually February’s World Championships in Saalbach, considered one of two profession top-30 finishes at main championships.
Main posted on Instagram: “Extraordinarily proud to be chosen for the Olympics in Milan-Cortina and symbolize Staff GB as soon as once more.
“Don’t assume this little champ might have imagined fairly how far he’d go and what’s nonetheless to return. It’s taken an enormous quantity of labor, dedication, and sacrifice to succeed in this level. It wouldn’t be doable with out all of the individuals who have believed in and supported me over time. To every considered one of you, thanks.”
Absence of Ladies
GB Snowsport declined the ladies’s quota spot, which many had anticipated would go to Victoria Palla in slalom because the highest-ranked British feminine athlete. Different athletes thought of included Colorado-based Reece Bell, who continues to handle harm setbacks, and 19-year-old Molly Butler, who has spent a number of seasons with Staff Carrick-Smith.
Different Choices
Teenager Freddy Carrick-Smith met the British Olympic Committee’s qualification requirements after posting two Europa Cup large slalom top-10 outcomes this week in Turnau, Austria. Nonetheless, the performances got here three days after the choice deadline.
Thirty-two-year-old velocity specialist Roy Steudle was additionally thought of, however he has been unable to hold ahead final season’s momentum, which included a Twenty ninth-place end within the World Championship super-G.
General Ideas
This Olympic staff displays constant, high-quality World Cup performances paired with expertise and reliability on the highest degree of the game. The depth outdoors the ultimate 2026 roster underscores the well being of British alpine snowboarding and factors towards continued progress as Dave Ryding brings a unprecedented profession to a detailed at season’s finish.
