Stafford schoolgirls on slippery slope to success

Sisters Elena and Georgia Blaikie and team-mate Poppy Dixon scooped awards for best new slalom side, best new giant slalom side and best new overall combined team in their first time competing at the 62-year-old event.

The girls competed against 150 female athletes from schools and colleges across Britain and Switzerland, with 14-year-old Georgia claiming the victories came as a surprise to them all.

“It was fantastic to represent the school for the first time in that competition and the skiing was really good,” she said. “Overall, I was proud of what we achieved.

“We hadn’t expected to get a team award, so when we won all three it was pretty exciting.”

Georgia was also due to compete at the World School Winter Games in Turkey this week (Feb 11-19), an event that has since been cancelled in the wake of the devastating earthquakes that have hit the country.

She was due to travel to Erzurum in north-east Turkey as part of England’s under-16 side to compete against nearly 500 athletes from 24 other countries, but the decision to call off the festival was made quickly after the two huge earthquakes on February 6 that caused the deaths of tens of thousands of people.

Despite having her own dreams of representing England in the first winter world games dashed, the 14-year-old expressed compassion for those caught up in the disaster.

“What’s happened is devastating and has impacted on so many people living in Turkey and Syria," she said. "There is such a tragic loss of life.

“Obviously I’m upset as I was really looking forward to the Games and it would have been a great opportunity for me to compete on the world stage, but I fully understand why they’ve been cancelled.

“It really puts skiing into perspective.”