Teenage ski speedster Daisi Daniels finished her week with another gold medal at the Delancey British Alpine Skiing Championships in Tignes on Friday.
The 15-year-old from Rochdale won the Under-16 female Giant Slalom with a combined time of 1:33.32 over two runs in the French Alps.
The first place finish, her second of the week following the win in the Super G race on Monday, gave her a total score of 200 points and meant she finished second overall out of all the under-16 girls.
“It feels really good, I’m really happy,” said Daniels, who almost fell at the penultimate gate on her first run of the Giant Slalom but still recorded the fastest time.
“I had a few wobbles going down but managed to keep control.
“A couple of times when I was going down the piste my skis were shaking about, it was really nerve-racking actually so I’m so happy that I managed to keep hold of it.
“I was nervous at the start of the second run because obviously I can see the girl who is behind me in second place go down at the start.
“She was attacking the gate at the start so I thought I had no choice, I had to do it so it was pretty scary.”
Despite going down the piste last in the second run, Daniels claimed she thrives under pressure, which may be the reason why she is talented in numerous sports.
“I love pressure,” said the racer.
“With pressure it feels like I have to do well, it’s an advantage.
“Between now and summer I’m going to be hitting the gym, join new sports teams, do as much as I can.
“I’ve got GCSEs coming up as well, I’ve got to focus on them a bit more but I’m not too bothered about that.
“You have your brain forever and you can always learn new things, but in sport you’ve got to take advantage while you can, the snow might not always be here and you won’t always have the ability to do sport.
“I change sports every summer, this year I’m hoping to pick rugby, football and boxing and last year I did boxing, basketball and trampolining.
“Boxing is amazing, my boxing coach actually asked me if I’d quit skiing to be a boxer and I said I’ll aim for both – Winter and Summer Olympics!
“Skiing is obviously number one, skiing over everything though! It’s the atmosphere and the adrenaline, I love going down at speed, it’s like real speed – faster than cars, it’s amazing!”
To follow the progress of the Delancey British Alpine Ski Team visit www.teambss.org.uk or follow @teambss on Twitter. As Principal Sponsor of British Ski and Snowboard, specialist real estate investment and advisory company Delancey is proud to be able to provide British athletes with the support they require to win World Cup and Winter Olympic medals. For more information visit www.delancey.com
