You give up or get on

Jan 31 2010 by Michael Kelly, Sunday Sun

TEN years ago action-man Sean Rose was contemplating life in a wheelchair after an horrific skiing accident left him with a broken back. Now he has made history by becoming Britain’s first alpine skiing world champion.

AS SEAN Rose waited at the start of his downhill run at the World Cup alpine skiing event earlier this month he could have been forgiven for having second thoughts about taking part.

The snow covering the mountain he was about to push himself on to had softened during the day, exposing treacherous ruts on the course and causing several competitors to crash at speeds of up to 80mph.

The frequent delays pushed his start time back . . . offering him plenty of time to think.

He could have thought back to a beautifully clear February morning in 2000 when he was on a far less challenging run than the one he was about to undertake.

Sean hit a build-up of wet snow and his skis stopped dead. His body was flung forward out of the bindings “like a javelin” and he went head first into a hard pack of snow. He tried to sit up but couldn’t move or feel anything from his chest down.

He said: “It was obvious to me that I’d broken my back. The pain was unbearable.”

Initially he thought he would have to give up his favourite sports, but in the end he didn’t . . . which was why a decade later he was waiting expectantly on his “sit-ski” at the International Paralympic Committee Alpine Skiing (IPCAS) World Cup event.

As a member of the British disabled ski team at Sestriere, Italy, he was about to make history.

Eventually he got the green light and was away to a good start, smoothly moving from gate to gate, his speed building until with the finishing line in sight he overdid it on a sharp jump.

Flying through the air at more than 70mph he “over-jumped” but managed to get it together on landing and crossed the finish line in a spectacularly fast time.

He claimed first place – a full second ahead of the silver medalist – and the Middlesbrough-born lad became the first Briton – disabled or able-bodied – to win an alpine skiing World Cup event.

Sean, 38, said: “It was the best feeling. It’s taken six or seven years of hard work to get there and it made it all worthwhile.”