Meet the experts

26 January 2015

PERFORMANCE DIRECTOR - GRAHAM BELL

Graham competed for Britain throughout the 1980s and 1990s in skiing. He represented Great Britain at five Winter Olympics in Sarajevo 1984, Calgary 1988, Albertville 1992, Lillehammer 1994 and Nagano 1998. Graham claimed the title of the Ski Champion of Britain on eight occasions during his career.

 

Graham will be overseeing the competitor’s progress in all the winter sporting disciplines across the series.

 

SKI JUMP – EDDIE ‘THE EAGLE’ EDWARDS

Eddie was the first person to ever represent GB in Ski Jumping at the 1988 Winter Olympics.

At the time of competing, Eddie was also the British Ski jump record holder (73.5m set during the Calgary Olympics), world number 9 in amateur speed skiing and the stunt jumping world record holder.

 

EVENT & SKI JUMP COMMENTATOR – BARRY DAVIES

Best known for his football commentary, Barry Davies has commentated on numerous other sports, including tennis, badminton, ice hockey, ice skating, gymnastics, hockey, cycling, beach volleyball and athletics, and primarily in the BBC's Olympics coverage, where he commentated on the opening and closing ceremonies of 3 Summer Games (Sydney 2000, Athens 2004 and London 2012) .

 

Barry will be commentating on all of the action at the events as well as ‘The Jump’ each night alongside Eddie ‘The Eagle’ Edwards.

 

SKI JUMP INSTRUCTOR – JAMES LAMBERT

Lambert is the British record holder in ski-jumping with a distance of 93m set in Switzerland in 2009.

He became the first ever British World Champion for ski jumping at the Senior World Championships in Czech Republic, 2012.

He currently coaches ski jumping in Oslo, Norway.

 

SLALOM & SKI CROSS INSTRUCTOR - WARREN SMITH

Warren Smith is one of Britain’s leading professional freeskiers and is an internationally certified Performance Coach and Ski Instructor. Warren runs the Warren Smith Ski Academy in Verbier and counts Sarah Ferguson, England Rugby Captain, Lawrence Dallaglio and Heston Blumenthal amongst his many celebrity clients.

 

SKELETON INSTRUCTOR – AMY WILLIAMS MBE

Amy won gold competing in Skeleton Event at the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics. Subsequently she was awarded an MBE in the Queen’s 2010 birthday honours list and shortlisted as the Sports Personality of the Year. Prior to winning her gold medal, Amy was 2nd in the World Student Games in 2005 and won a Silver medal in the 2009 World Championships.

 

AUSTRIAN SKELETON INSTRUCTOR – MARKUS PENZ

Markus has been competing as a skeleton racer since 2002. He finished 16th in the men's skeleton event at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin.

 

Penz also finished fourth in the men's skeleton event at the 2007 FIBT World Championships in St. Moritz.

 

Markus’ expertise is invaluable to our celebrities, he will be training them while in Austria and has great knowledge of the course they will be competing on.

 

SNOWBOARD INSTRUCTOR – JENNY JONES

Jenny is best known for winning Britain its first Olympic medal for Snowboarding when she picked up Bronze in Slopestyle in 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics.

 

Jones also has 3 Gold Medals in Slopestyle from the Winter X Games (2009 Aspen, 2010 Aspen, 2010 Tignes) and 2 Silver medals (2011 Aspen – Winter X Games, 2013 Cardrona – New Zealand Winter Games)

 

SNOWBOARD INSTRUCTOR – ASH NEWNES

Ash is one of the most well respected coaches in the British snowboarding scene. He has been riding since the early 90’s and started teaching in 1997. Since then Ash has gone on to gain the highest qualifications achievable. Ash now trains instructors for all the snowboard governing bodies in Great Britain.

 

BOBSLEIGH INSTRUCTOR – IAN RICHARDSON

Ian will be training our competitors for the Bobsleigh event and he has been the director of sport at Team GB Bobsleigh since 2011. He was invited to join the British Bobsleigh Board of Directors in March 2013 and was appointed as Director of Sport in July 2013 after vote of membership.

 

BOBSLEIGH AUSTRIAN ADVISOR - ROBERT MANZENREITER

Robert is a former Austrian luger who competed during the late 1980s and early 1990s at world level. Robert is the training co-ordinator and course manager of the Olympic Sliding Centre Innsbruck and will be offering our competitors the benefits of his expert knowledge of the bobsleigh track at Igls, Austria.

 

SNOW CRASH INSTRUCTOR - ANDREI LAVROV

Andrei has been training on snow skates for over two years. 2011 was Andrei’s first season on the Red Bull Crashed Ice circuit and he became the best Russian athlete, finishing seventh in the world standings.

 

He is currently an ice hockey team assistant/skills coach at EC Red Bull Salzburg in Austria, having played junior ice hockey all over Europe and spent six months playing in Boston, USA.

 

SNOW CRASH COURSE DEMONSTRATORS - MARCO & LUCA DALLAGO

Marco is the current Crushed Ice World Champion and Luca ranked 4th. Both have taken part in the Red Bull Crashed Ice since 2011.