It All Starts at Home… Pat Sharples, GB Snowsport Head Coach

Throughout the 2021/22 Season, GB Snowsport and Redrow will be finding out where it all began for some of Britain’s top athletes and coaches as they prepare for and compete in one of the biggest snowsport seasons in recent memory.

Pat Sharples is Head Coach for GB Snowsport, overseeing the performance and development of every member of Britain’s elite snowsport squads

I got into skiing… at the age of seven, at a local dry slope centre in Rossendale in north-west England

I started Alpine ski racing… in the UK on the dry slope circuit. I competed in English and British Alpine Championships on the snow, and was selected to the British children’s team

I left home… at 16 and moved to France to find work in a ski resort. I started out as a chalet boy and a ski tech in Courchevel 1650, where I started getting into moguls and backcountry skiing

I had my first knee reconstruction… in 1995, and my second in 1998! In between, I won the Amateur Moguls Championships in 1996, before getting involved in the new Freeride movement sponsored by Salomon and Oakley

I started… British Freeski Camps with Warren Smith in 1999, and created, starred in, and directed the Season Wars trilogy in Courchevel; became the Salomon Athlete Team Manager in 2004; the Oakley Ski Team Manager in 2004; and, started up the Salomon Grom Freeski Camps in 2004 as well

In 2011… I created the first ever GB Freeski team, and then started work as the British Head Freeski Coach in 2012

I was selected… as the first GB Freeski Coach for the Olympic Winter Games in Sochi in 2014, before becoming Head Coach for all GB Snowsport programmes in 2018