Benjamin Griffin (alpine skier)

Last updated

Griffin in 2008 Ben Griffin Spital am Semmering 2008.jpg
Griffin in 2008

Benjamin Griffin (born 22 September 1986), also known as Ben Griffin, is an alpine skier from New Zealand. He competed for New Zealand at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Giant Slalom and Super G where he failed to finish the first run of either event. [1]

Griffin was brought up around Mt Ruapehu where his father was manager of the iconic chateau hotel. As a result, learnt to ski from the age of 3. Griffin begun ski racing within the Whakapapa Ski racing team. He was later selected for the New Zealand National ski racing team along with other Whakapapa ski racers such as Angus Howden and Sarah Jarvis.

Griffin's career highlights include 14-point FIS results in a Giant Slalom Nor-Am event in 2008. Ben was the 2007,2009 and 2010 New Zealand GS national champion as well as the Super G national champion in 2006,2007, 2009.

Griffin broke his neck in preparation for the New Zealand ski season in 2008. As a result, Griffin missed the entire New Zealand ski season. Griffin commenced an impressive come back in late March 2009, recording a 4th-place finish in the French Giant Slalom national championships at Meribel.

Griffin has a career high world ranking of 123 in Giant Slalom in the 2010/11 FIS race season.

Griffin had a reasonably serious hand injury resulting from a crash in the German National championships in April 2011. This necessitated surgery in Auckland in May–June 2011. It is unknown what the recovery period will be and when he will return to training and competitive ski racing in the 2011 New Zealand winter season.

Ben Griffin missed selection for the New Zealand Winter Olympic squad competing in Sochi, Russia in 2014. He subsequently retired having won 12 New Zealand national titles, 7 ANC titles, 6 FIS races and having been on the podium at 24 FIS races around the world. He also represented New Zealand at 3 World Championships, 10 World Cups, and the 2010 Vancouver Olympics. He has taken up a position as a ski racing coach for Team Hutt-based out of Mt Hutt.

Related Research Articles

Jean-Claude Killy French alpine skier

Jean-Claude Killy is a French former World Cup alpine ski racer. He dominated the sport in the late 1960s, and was a triple Olympic champion, winning the three alpine events at the 1968 Winter Olympics, becoming the most successful athlete there. He also won the first two World Cup titles, in 1967 and 1968.

Hannelore (Hanni) Wenzel is a former alpine ski racer from Liechtenstein, an Olympic, World Cup, and world champion. She won the country's first Olympic medal at the 1976 Winter Olympics in Innsbruck, Austria.

Super-G

Super giant slalom, or super-G, is a racing discipline of alpine skiing. Along with the faster downhill, it is regarded as a "speed" event, in contrast to the technical events giant slalom and slalom. It debuted as an official World Cup event during the 1983 season and was added to the official schedule of the World Championships in 1987 and the Winter Olympics in 1988.

Marlies Schild Austrian alpine skier

Marlies Raich is a retired Austrian World Cup alpine ski racer. She specializes in the technical disciplines of slalom and giant slalom. Schild won four Olympic medals, with silvers in the combined (2006) and slalom and a bronze in slalom (2006). She has seven World Championship medals and has won five World Cup season titles.

Ivica Kostelić Croatian alpine skier

Ivica Kostelić is a former World Cup alpine ski racer from Croatia. He specialized in slalom and combined, but was also one of the few alpine World Cup ski racers able to score points in all disciplines. He is the brother of skiing champion Janica Kostelić. In his career he was coached by his father Ante Kostelić, as well as by Kristian Ghedina and Tomislav Krstičević.

Chemmy Alcott

Chimene Mary "Chemmy" Crawford-Alcott is an English former World Cup alpine ski racer. She competed in all five disciplines: downhill, super G, giant slalom, slalom and combined.

Ted Ligety American alpine skier

Theodore Sharp Ligety is an American alpine ski racer, a two-time Olympic gold medalist, and an entrepreneur, having cofounded Shred Optics. Ligety won the combined event at the 2006 Olympics in Turin and the giant slalom race at the 2014 Olympics in Sochi. He is also a five-time World Cup champion in giant slalom. Ligety won the gold medal in the giant slalom at the 2011 World Championships. He successfully defended his world title in giant slalom in 2013 in Schladming, Austria, where he also won an unexpected gold medal in the super-G and a third gold medal in the super combined. Through October, 2015, he has 25 victories and 52 podiums in World Cup competition.

Combined is an event in alpine ski racing. A traditional combined competition consists of one run of downhill and two runs of slalom, each discipline run on separate days. The winner is the skier with the fastest aggregate time. A modified version, the super combined, is a speed race and only one run of slalom, with both portions scheduled on the same day.

Aksel Lund Svindal Norwegian alpine skier

Aksel Lund Svindal is a Norwegian former World Cup alpine ski racer.

Dane Spencer is a former World Cup alpine ski racer and current assistant coach with the U.S. Ski Team. At the World Cup level, he specialized in the giant slalom.

Šárka Strachová Czech alpine skier

Šárka Strachová is a retired Czech World Cup alpine ski racer. Born in Benecko, she specializes in the slalom event. Strachová is the first alpine racer representing the Czech Republic to medal at the Winter Olympics and at the World Championships and just the second Czech alpine skier ever to medal in the Olympics.

Thomas Fanara French alpine skier

Thomas Fanara is a former French World Cup alpine ski racer.

Carlo Janka Swiss alpine skier

Carlo Janka is an alpine ski racer from Switzerland. Born in Obersaxen, in the canton of Graubünden, he had the winter sports facilities right in front of his home. Janka has won gold medals at both the Winter Olympics and the World Championships, as well as one World Cup overall title, one discipline title and also, one unofficial alpine combined title.

Marcel Hirscher Austrian alpine skier

Marcel Hirscher is an Austrian former World Cup alpine ski racer. Hirscher made his World Cup debut in March 2007. He competed primarily in slalom and giant slalom, as well as combined and occasionally in super G. Winner of a record eight consecutive World Cup titles, Hirscher has also won 11 medals at the Alpine Skiing World Championships, seven of them gold, a silver medal in slalom at the 2014 Winter Olympics, and two gold medals in the combined and giant slalom at the 2018 Winter Olympics. Due to his record number of overall titles and many years of extreme dominance of both slalom and giant slalom, he is considered by many, including his former rivals Henrik Kristoffersen, Kjetil Jansrud and Alexis Pinturault, to be one of the best alpine skiers in history. He won a total of 67 World Cup races, ranking second in the male all-time list.

Lyudmila Fedotova is a female skier from Kazakhstan. She competed in the alpine skiing events in the 2010 Winter Olympics. She also competed in the FIS Alpine World Ski Championships 2009.

Kristaps Zvejnieks

Kristaps Zvejnieks is an Alpine ski racer and inline Alpine slalom racer from Latvia. He competed for Latvia at the 2010 Winter Olympics. He competed in slalom and giant slalom and his best result was a 37th place in the slalom. He competes in FIS, CIT, EC and WC levels. He had his first World Cup start in Schladming on 24 January 2012.

Norbert Farkas (alpine skier) Hungarian alpine skier

Norbert Farkas is an alpine skier from Hungary. He competed for Hungary at the 2014 Winter Olympics in the slalom and giant slalom. He is 11-time Hungarian National Champion, 28-time Hungarian National Junior Champion. A team member of Felix Promotion sport-management agency. He learned to ski at the age of three. He has been studying International Business at Budapest University of Technology and Economics and was granted "A Good Student, a Good Athlete" award in 2013. Coaches are: Armin Brunner, Budai Balázs and Zakariás Zsolt. His role model is Felix Neureuther.

Sylvain Dufour French alpine snowboarder

Sylvain Dufour is a French alpine snowboarder. He claimed two silver medals each in giant slalom and slalom at the 2009 FIS Snowboarding World Championships in Gangwon, South Korea, and later represented his nation France in two editions of the Olympic Games. Dufour currently trains for Ski Club Sainte-Marie-aux-Mines under his personal coach and mentor Christophe Guinamard.

Piera Hudson is a New Zealand alpine ski racer. Piera Hudson went to the first ever youth olympics in Innsbruck Austria in 2012.

Alice Robinson New Zealand skier

Alice Robinson is a New Zealand World Cup alpine ski racer. At age sixteen, she competed at the 2018 Winter Olympics, in giant slalom and slalom.

References

  1. "Benjamin Griffin". Vancouver 2010. Archived from the original on 9 April 2010. Retrieved 16 December 2010.