James Riddell

W. James Riddell MBE (27 December 1909 – 2 February 2000) was a British champion skier and author who was involved in the early days of skiing as a competitive sport and holiday industry. Like his near contemporary, Sir Arnold Lunn, he matched his adventurism on the slopes and knowledge of the Alpine countries with an elegant record of his times. Skiing achievements In 1929, he raced for Britain at Zakopane, Poland, in the first international downhill race, having got the reluctant backing of the International Ski Federation, and finished eighth among 60 racers. In the same year, he won the Kandahar Club's Muerren Inferno, still the longest and most demanding of amateur downhill races. He was British national champion in 1935 and vice-captain to Arnold Lunn's son, Peter, at the 1936 Winter Olympics at Garmisch-Partenkirchen. He worked with Lunn and the Kandahar Ski Club to overcome Scandinavian objections to downhill-only skiing: they saw the sport being as much uphill as down. Finally, Alpine skiing was admitted at Garmisch, but only on the basis of combined results in downhill and slalom, a word coined by Lunn for a race with shorter, sharper turns through gates of twin poles.