Benjamin Alexander (skier)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Benjamin Alexander
Born (1983-05-08) 8 May 1983 (age 38)
Wellingborough, England
EducationUniversity College London
OccupationOlympic athlete, DJ

Benjamin Alexander (born 8 May 1983) is a British former DJ and the first alpine skier to represent Jamaica in the Olympics.

Early life[]

Benjamin Alexander was born in Wellingborough, England to a Jamaican father and British mother in 1983.[1] Having won a government scholarship, he was educated at Wellingborough School, an independent school in Northamptonshire.[2][3] At the age of 17, Alexander began DJing.[4] He began studying physics at Imperial College, London before transferring to University College London to study electrical engineering ,[5][3] graduating in 2006.[citation needed] After university he worked in wealth management in Hong Kong.[3]

DJ career[]

In 2010, Alexander quit finance to pursue DJing professionally. He spent a decade touring in 30 different countries[6]-- eventually performing at Burning Man starting in 2011.[7] By 2015, he was hosting a radio show as well as a weekly party in Ibiza, Spain while co-founding the award-winning music festival, Further Future.[8] Alexander retired from DJing in 2018 but kept his board seat with the charity Robot Heart, a well-known Burning Man camp.[9]

Skiing career[]

In 2016, Alexander was invited to DJ a ski trip in Whistler, British Columbia where he had his first mountain lesson.[4] Alexander began pursuing skiing professionally at the end of 2019 after attending the 2018 Winter Olympics as a spectator, noticing only three Jamaican athletes representing his father's nation.[8] His father had emigrated to the United Kingdom as part of the Windrush generation.[5] Knowing he wouldn't qualify for the British Olympic team, he applied for a Jamaican passport (which he qualified for through his father): the Olympic standard is lower for countries that don't normally qualify for the games.[3][nb 1]

Alexander's first official race was on 9 January 2020 and he qualified for the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics on 13 January 2022.[10] In preparation of the 2022 games, Alexander maintained weekly mentorship calls with Dudley Stokes, the former Jamaican Olympic bobsledder, since the beginning of 2020.[1]

Alexander raced the giant slalom event on 13 February 2022, finishing in 46th place (last), but ahead of 43 other athletes who did not finish in the event.[11]

Notes[]

  1. ^ "Having started at 32 I was never going to make the British team. Instead I found my father's birth certificate and applied for a Jamaican passport. The country has never had an Olympic skier — all I had to do was pick the right event and make the Olympic standard, which is lower for nations that don’t normally qualify."[3]

References[]

  1. ^ a b Randall, Cassidy. "How Benjamin Alexander May Become Jamaica's Olympic Ski Team". Time. Archived from the original on 2021-12-10. Retrieved 2022-01-19.
  2. ^ MacInnes, Paul (14 January 2022). "Benjamin Alexander: the former DJ remixing the spirit of Cool Runnings". The Guardian. Retrieved 13 February 2022.
  3. ^ a b c d e Taylor, Jeremy (13 February 2022). "Benjamin Alexander: how I became Jamaica's first Olympic skier". The Times. Retrieved 13 February 2022.
  4. ^ a b Massie, Graeme (2021-08-11). "Former DJ channels 'Cool Runnings' as he targets Winter Olympic ski glory for Jamaica". The Independent. Archived from the original on 2021-08-14. Retrieved 2022-01-19.
  5. ^ a b Newman, Richard (19 October 2021). "Beijing 2022 - Benjamin Alexander on Jamaican Olympic ski dream: 'I'm ranked 3748th - exactly where I need to be'". Eurosport. Retrieved 13 February 2022.
  6. ^ OlympicTalk (2021-02-16). "Former DJ hopes to be Jamaica's first Olympic Alpine skier". OlympicTalk | NBC Sports. Retrieved 2022-01-19.
  7. ^ King, Ariel (2022-01-18). "Former Burning Man DJ to represent Jamaican ski team in Winter Olympics". Dancing Astronaut. Archived from the original on 2022-01-18. Retrieved 2022-01-19.
  8. ^ a b Gunston, Jo. "From international DJ to Alpine skier – Benjamin Alexander's unique Olympic journey". Olympics.com. Archived from the original on 2021-12-03. Retrieved 2022-01-19.
  9. ^ Andrews, Steve. "Meet Benjamin Alexander, Jamaica's First (and Only) Olympic Ski Racer". The Inertia. Retrieved 2022-01-19.
  10. ^ "Jamaican Benjamin Alexander beat odds to qualify for giant slalom". The Japan Times. 2022-01-18. Retrieved 2022-01-19.
  11. ^ "Men's giant slalom results" (PDF). FIS. 13 February 2022. Retrieved 13 February 2022.
Retrieved from ""