Benjamin Alexander (skier)

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Benjamin Alexander
Born (1983-05-08) 8 May 1983 (age 40)
Wellingborough, England
Education University College London
Occupation(s)Olympic athlete, DJ

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

Contents

Early life

Benjamin Alexander was born in Wellingborough, England to a Jamaican father, a bus driver, [1] and British mother in 1983. [2] Having won a government scholarship, he was educated at Wellingborough School, a private school in Northamptonshire. [3] [4] At the age of 17, Alexander began DJing. [5] He began studying physics at Imperial College, London before transferring to University College London to study electrical engineering , [6] [4] graduating in 2006.[ citation needed ] After university he worked in wealth management in Hong Kong. [4]

DJ career

In 2010, Alexander quit finance to pursue DJing professionally. He spent a decade touring in 30 different countries [7] —eventually performing at Burning Man starting in 2011. [8] 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. [9] Alexander retired from DJing in 2018 but kept his board seat with the charity Robot Heart, a well-known Burning Man camp. [10]

Skiing career

In 2016, Alexander was invited to DJ a ski trip in Whistler, British Columbia, where he had his first mountain lesson. [5] Alexander began pursuing skiing professionally at the end of 2019 after attending the 2018 Winter Olympics as a spectator. [9] He chose to represent Jamaica in international skiing as he acquired Jamaican nationality through his father. [6]

Alexander's first official race was on 9 January 2020, and he qualified for the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics on 13 January 2022. [11] In preparation of the 2022 games, Alexander maintained weekly mentorship calls with Dudley Stokes, the former Jamaican Olympic bobsledder, since the beginning of 2020. [2]

Alexander raced the giant slalom event on 13 February 2022, finishing in 46th place (last). [12]

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References

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