About James and Alice

The full story

James and I first met 10 years ago when we were introduced by a friend. The 10 years that have followed have been quite the rollercoaster.

Two weeks after our honeymoon in 2013, James found out that he was disabled with a genetic eye condition called retinitis pigmentosa. One year later his eyesight issues were deemed severe enough that he was officially labelled as severely sight impaired (also known as ‘blind’).

The following years were hard to navigate. James felt exactly the same, apart from knowing about this new category. Everything was as it had been but James slowly realised that what had been was not what the rest of the population experienced.

It felt like we had to navigate what our normal was again and to learn how to be a couple within a strange and new framework.

So the best thing for that was – I decided on skiing.

James had skied for three days previously when he was a child with school but had never really enjoyed it so I thought that we should try again.

It was a purely selfish decision because I had nobody else to ski with. We travelled to Andorra with Nielsen as they did package deals very cheaply. When booking I told the representative that James couldn’t see very well so he was allocated a school group with a fabulous gentleman called Marcus Upton.

After a day of working with Marcus, Marcus suggested that James follow me and also that I say the odd command word to James. This turned out to be guiding and it’s something we’ve done ever since! Marcus also suggested that we contact Disability Snowsport UK as they run subsidised sessions in UK snowdomes for people with physical disabilities. He also suggested that we contact the British race team as there are not many people who are technically blind who want to ski race!

James went to an International Paralympic Committee event in November 2015 and was classified as a B2 Visually Impaired athlete.

To cut a very long story short, James and I started to be ski coached in January 2016. James basically had to learn to ski from scratch in his 30s and I had to learn how to ski properly and to ski race. I’d last really skied when parallel turns were in fashion and the idea of carving was completely new to me.

We first raced for Great Britain in November 2016 in a Dutch snowdome. The following winter season was a mix of entry-level races across Austria, France and Switzerland. We caught the ski racing bug and invested in our first campervan called Louise to and keep the costs down.

Everything was going well, we were learning how to ski race and thoroughly enjoying the lifestyle it came with. Until September 2017.

We had just arrived in a ski resort called Hintertux in Austria when on the first day, another ski racer skied into me. I was taken off the slope on a piece basher and taken down the 3 gondolas in a wheelchair to the ambulance waiting at the bottom.

I had completely torn my ACL and partially torn my MCL.

A day later and my torn ACL had been repaired using part of my hamstring, and I was braced up for the recovery of my torn MCL in my left knee. I was flown home with ambulance transfers and had 9 months of physio and recovery before I was back to full training again. It was extremely hard to deal with physically, but for my mental health far more.

James tried ski racing with the brilliant Ross Patterson and flew out to a few races, where I sometimes joined them.

We started ski racing together again for the 2018/19 season, but it took us longer then expected to get back into the groove again. Additionally, we’d gone independent from the British team for mental health reasons, so we were learning how to design a programme that worked for us.

We started training with the brilliant Ben Reid, and started making improvements again. We were skiing well during the summer of 2019 and couldn’t wait to show what we could do.

James had his regular classification event where the IPC review his eyesight and gave his disability class.

I’m not going to go into it here, as it’s far too traumatic but you can read a blog I wrote about the experience here. James was mistakenly declassified and we were suddenly unable to race.

The 2019/20 season was extremely tough - far more so than my ACL. We didn’t know if we should carry on trying to ski train and race. Would we ever be able to race again? Did people think we were a fraud? Had we made the whole thing up? We lost the little funding we had and suddenly had a huge crisis of identity. We both went into the darkest realms of our minds.

James tried to be reclassified in Norway in the Nordic ski racing classification event in December 2019, but apparently there wasn’t space for him, and the other event in Austria was cancelled. An event in China in February 2020 seemed to be the only option globally of salvaging any of the ski race season, so James and his father bought their flights, got visas arranged and were all set to go.

Then COVID-19 hit. The event was cancelled, as was another event in the USA in April 2020.

The following months were a blur, just trying to survive mentally. Ironically, a global pandemic and me working for the NHS in the UK was far less stressful than the declassification event for us both, which just shows how traumatic the declassification event was.

To cut another story short, we escaped London the day Tier 4 in London was announced and had fled to Calais by midnight that day. We continued driving with our cats in our new van, Louise, until we reached Verbier. We had another classification event to try and get to in January 2021 in Veysonnaz, Switzerland and we were desperate to attend it.

Despite the International Paralympic Committee and the World Para Alpine Ski racing organisations being able to run ski races in Veysonnaz, the classification event was cancelled again.

Our mental health plummeted, and James in particular found it extremely hard. So hard in fact that he told his Personal Trainer, the fabulous Michael Ulloa, that he was retiring from the sport.

It had just been too much to handle and it was enough. James was calling it a day.

A day later we received an email from GB Snowsport saying that there was a new classification event in Austria, in 4 days time.

Travelling across international borders in February 2021 was extremely challenging. We required PCR test results, an official invitation from the Austrians to enter their country and lots of paperwork to support our trip. But nothing was going to stop us.

James was reclassified in February 2021 as a B2 visually impaired athlete - exactly the same as it had been up to from November 2015 - November 2019. The nightmare was over, and he wouldn’t be required to be classified again for another 2.5 years.

We were over the moon, and gradually started trying to put our lives back together again.

We travelled - completely independently of any coaches or support - to Malbun, Liechtenstein for slalom and Giant Slalom races, and even ended up on the Europa Cup podium there with 3rd place. It was beyond what we thought was possible, and such a change from just a few weeks before.

We raced as much as we could in March 2021, and raced in both Gerlitzen and Hopfgarten in Austria that month. Despite just having a couple of days of training in gates for the past year, we managed our best ever scores and ended the season in 18th place internationally for both slalom and Giant Slalom. This is despite:

• having no coach nor any team

• having no funding

• dealing with the psychological trauma of declassification

• a global pandemic

• such limited time training in gates (we didn’t know if it was worth paying for or not)

We are extremely proud to have achieved what we have done so far, and to have persevered. It’s left its mark mentally, but we’re using the anger and the unfairness to light that fire in our belly and to train and work our hardest.

In October we found out that we were officially longlisted for the winter Paralympics in Beijing 2022, and spent nearly two months at the start of 2022 in the USA ski training and racing in our attempt to qualify. Unfortunately we didn’t quite make it but were so proud to have even been considered. And we’re going to try again in 2026!

We carried on training during the summer of 2022, although we then started a run of bad luck. I (Alice) slipped a disc in my neck in August which was both excruciating and meant I couldn’t lift or use my right arm. I needed months out of my regular training regime.

In October we crashed our van when a stag jumped out 5 metres in front of us as we were travelling 50mph (again in Austria). It took us 2 months to get the van repatriated back to the UK and another 2 months for repairs, resulting in a lot of additional expenses - but luckily we were both physically ok.

In December 2022 we were then ski race training in Kaunertal with the fabulous Liechtenstein national para team when I (Alice) had a horrific crash while training Giant Slalom. I badly fractured the top of my tibia, and was operated on the following day in Zams in Austria. My leg is now filled with a metal plate, 6 screws and also temporarily had 23 staples. It was pretty nasty and will be 6-9 months before I can ski again. Again, another insurance claim and I was flown back to the UK to recuperate and convalesce.

James was so mentally strong and even went back out ski racing with a new, temporary guide, Jacob Goode during two separate trips a few weeks later. Despite never having worked together before, they did absolutely brilliantly and:

• Got gold in slalom at the Europa Cup Finals

• Won the overall slalom in Europa Cup during 2022/23

• Was 2nd in the technical races in Europa Cup during 2022/23

It’s been an absolute whirlwind and we are so grateful to Jacob for helping James to continue training, racing and progressing. They far surpassed expectations and achieved so much.

We’re now back in the UK after the end of the season, are starting to start our summer training in the gym and I (Alice) am continuing my rehab. After 2.5 months in a wheelchair, I’m now out and about on crutches and am getting stronger every day. I’m so proud of how far we’ve come, how much James has progressed and can’t wait to see what happens in winter 2023/24. Bring it on!!!