Why is visually impaired ski racing so hard?

James Luetchford is a severely sight impaired para alpine ski racer, and represents Great Britain internationally. He’s guided by his wife, Alice who skies in front of him and guides him down slalom and Giant Slalom race courses.

Visually impaired ski racing is tough. Not only do you have to learn how to ski race, but there’s a whole other level of work that needs to happen. Some people think disabled sport is somehow ‘less than’ able bodied sport. I think that disabled sport is more extreme than able bodied sport. It takes huge courage to even start and the below are some of the reasons why it' I just so challenging.

James can’t see much

Stating the obvious here, but James has extreme tunnel vision, which means that if he’s looking at my (Alice’s) face, he can only see one of my eyes at a time. When skiing he can’t see any other people, any trees, any other skiers, the ski race gates… This is why he needs me to guide me down the mountain. If I ever become injured, James needs the support of someone else to try and help him get off the mountain safely.

We’re completely unfunded

Accessing funding for disabled ski racing is extremely difficult. While getting funding for any sport can be challenging, disabled sport is much harder because there’s simply less of an audience for potential sponsors to showcase their brands. There are few races broadcast on regular TV; Ski Sunday only briefly discusses disabled sport and brands want to work with events and athletes who garner more attention. We don’t believe this is right, but until more disabled sport is shown online and on the TV, it’s going to be hard to change this.

We did receive a thousand pounds here and there previously before James was declassified, but the International Paralympic Committee’s mistake in declassifying him has meant that we lost the little funding we had. We need to raise about £25,000 annually to represent our country disabled ski racing.

You have to pay double

In most circumstances, visually impaired athletes need to pay double costs in order to ski race. Sit skiers have to pay more on their sit skis / rigs, and standing athletes might have to buy outriggers, but visually impaired athletes face many more ongoing costs.

If you fly to training or races, you need two tickets. If you are in hotel accommodation, you need two beds. You need double the the amount of clothing, skis and equipment. You need double the amount of food. And you need to buy a radio headset so that you can talk to each other as you ski down the course. Rarely are these duplication of costs discussed.

There are no eligible ski races in the UK

The World Para Alpine ski races do not hold any races in the UK, as GB Snowsport does not apply to host any. In order to compete at all we must travel to the continent to take part in the ski races there. Even the British National Championships take place in the French Alps. There are few mountains in England but plenty of ski opportunities in Scotland, yet no ski races are hosted there.

There is no development programme

Unfortunately the small scale development programme that did exist when we first started ski racing in 2016 was dismantled after the race team moved from Disability Snowsport UK (DSUK) to GB Snowsport in 2018. Since then, the only athletes who have been given any support from the national team are those which are already at a World Cup level. There is no support available at all for developing athletes.

Guiding and being guided takes a huge cognitive load

When ski guiding James, we have to do many of the same things that able bodied athletes have to do. We have to learn the ski racing line; learn the rules of the race; learn how to ski faster; learn ski race tactics and generally improve.

However, there’s a whole other area that we need to also take account of and work on: the whole guiding process. This is an additional mental load which takes an additional 50% of energy on top of the normal amount of mental and physical work needed to become a ski racer.

When coaches try to give me feedback, I only have - at best - half of my mind empty to receive information and to work on my own technique. On a difficult day with many courses set closer together and with a more challenging set, I might have 10% of my brain free to work on my own technique. If we’ve changed our command words and I need to try and remember what we’ve changed them to, I might have 3% of my mind free to work on my own technique.

Able bodied athletes don’t need to do any of this.

We mentally tire quicker

Focusing so intensely on our skiing and racing technique takes a huge cognitive effort. Trying to ski my heart out so I stay in front of James takes a huge cognitive effort. Focusing on the mental side of things takes more energy. Keeping an eye out for potential dangers for James takes energy. Trying to find a way for both of us to safely wind our way down the mountain takes cognitive effort. Everything just seems more tiring.

Which can be dangerous. When I tire, I start making mistakes and telling James the wrong words. When James tires, he stops giving me feedback and doesn’t tell me when to slow up or slow down. And the risk of an accident becomes uncomfortably high.

When this happens we stop training for the session. The benefits we could get do not outweigh the risks we are going to take. So if either one of us starts to fatigue in this way, we stop. And we also have to remember to keep enough energy ourselves to get down and off the mountain safely!

How we try and overcome these challenges

We train with able bodied athletes

With non-existent development opportunities on the disabled ski training fronts, we’ve instead decided to train with able bodied athletes. We’ve met fantastic coaches who train people trying to qualify for their ski instructor qualifications, and particularly their Euro test (which is a speed test). Working with other adults who are similarly minded is a fantastic opportunity, and we’ve made some brilliant friends.

We also find that we are not patronised by coaches when we train with able bodied athletes, and we are pushed further with higher expectations, steeper terrain and more challenging terrain. We progress more and progress faster, and just generally have more fun!

We live out of a van

In order to try and reduce costs, we live out of our beautiful custom made and custom converted VW Crafter Louise. We had to remortgage our flat to be able to afford her, and it’s like we’ve paid all of our accommodation costs upfront. The cost of diesel and ferries is cheaper than flying and paying for hire cars, plus we don’t have to pay for accommodation when we live in her. We take our cats with us (Molly and Moggs), and have the freedom and flexibility to move to better snow, training and races without being stung by cancellation fees. She’s absolutely fantastic. (A huge shout out to Alan Day Group and Race Van Conversions for making our dream come true!)

We both work two jobs

Being unfunded is incredibly tough, and we both have to work two jobs to try and make ends meet. We appreciate the family support we have, and also try to reduce our outgoings as much as possible. We don’t have children and we prioritise our ski racing over nearly everything else.

We sleep more

Being aware of our energy levels and ensuring that we get enough sleep is critical. We need the mental time to recover and to decompress. As introverts too, we really value our time away from others to recharge our energy levels. We also need to sleep to recover from such intense training periods. But seeing as sleep is one of the best ways to recover, and seeing as it’s a preferred past time of ours, neither of us really mind at all having to spend more time in our beds - especially in Louise our van!

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Ultimately ski racing and representing GB is the ultimate privilege, but also massively expensive and challenging. However this is a fight that is totally worth making, and something that we will carry on fighting for. We can’t wait to show you what we’ve got!