‘Passion and work ethic!’ – Dave Ryding reveals the key to success despite age, agrees with Novak Djokovic

Great Britain star Dave Ryding has revealed that “passion and work ethic” are the two keys to his success despite being one of the oldest skiers on the tour.

Ryding, 36, confounded expectations, and his own poor form, just before the Alpine World Ski Championships when he secured a second-place finish at Kitzbuhel, on the one-year anniversary of his triumph at the legendary Austrian venue, the first British male victory on the World Cup.

And as the oldest man on tour to win a slalom, it could be easy for Ryding to give up on the dream of winning again but the fire still burns.

Speaking to Eurosport expert and former world champion Tina Maze ahead of the slalom race on Sunday, Ryding said: “Thankfully, my body feels good. I haven’t got any like aches or pains.

“The real hard thing is the sort of mental intensity that you’ve got to bring to a slalom.

“If my body’s still springy, then I don’t have a problem with that.

“But the mental side of it and getting in the zone is getting hard. But it is what it is. And I’m still able to just about do it. But I think I also use the age thing now as something I’m proud of, because I’m the oldest ever winner of a slalom two seasons ago. And then the third oldest ever on a podium.

“So in slalom it’s also a goal to do it with age and become the oldest maybe on a podium. But to do that would mean another year so I don’t know.”

Ryding then revealed the keys to his success still whilst agreeing with a point made by Novak Djokovic recently, that 35 is the new 25.

“I was driving here driving on my own, so you get lost in your thoughts and I was thinking ‘why am I able to do it?’. Because I have a small team, I don’t have a physio, I don’t have nutritionists.

“I think the most important thing is I grew up respecting a work ethic and I still want to work hard and if your body is good, like Novak is saying his body is still probably good, then you’re good.

“So you still need to have the passion and the work ethic and if you have these two things, then I think it’s still possible. Okay you will lose certain attributes. but with age comes experience as well.”

Maze, like so many others, was curious about the future for Ryding. However the Brit continues to play his cards close to his chest, not giving any hints or indications as to what might come next.

“At the moment, I have the two younger boys, Billy [Major] and Laurie [Taylor] always with me. So I try and set an example and give what I can to them, everyone.

“I’m a believer that everyone has their own path. But the basics are still the same as the work ethic and everything like that.

“We’ll see, I don’t know. I’ve been only skiing and only slalom so yeah, I’m excited for the future, because once skiing is finished, then hopefully another door opens.

“And I’d love to share my experience because, yeah, with running a little cafe at our home, it’s made me realise that I know a lot about skiing. I wouldn’t say I’m an expert. I’m decent, but yeah, I’d love to pass it on.”

Ryding said he is still just treating this race as he would any other, with no special preparation. But there is good news, with Ryding’s injured ski man back in the picture.

“I found him again! Thankfully, after I begged him to come out a bit earlier. He’s not on skis yet. But he’s in the ski room,” he added.

“I was going into the race feeling a little sorry for myself at Madonna [when he was missing his ski man]. But then I thought, you know, everybody else in this race doesn’t really care that I don’t have a ski man, and they just want to beat me even more probably.

“So like sink or swim, flight or fight you’ve got to just do what you can on the day. And yeah, then a few tricky races but as soon as I got the ice, then I could I could do my thing. And Kitzbuhel for some reason it suits me. And since then, touch wood, I’ve been skiing good. So yeah, I’m pretty happy with how things have gone.”

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