Jamaican Alpine Skier Michael Williams Michael Williams only discovered skiing by accident. As an 18-year-old of Caribbean descent living in Canada, he had turned on his TV to watch the celebrated Jamaican bobsled team at the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, but got hooked on skiing as well. He loved the way Alberto Tomba of Italy and Pirmin Zurbriggen of Switzerland glided down the slopes. “I wanted it too,” Williams, now aged 45, says of the revelation on his blog page, called ‘Jamaican Dream Chaser’. “I wanted to be called ‘Blackman Zurbriggen.’ I wanted to be a beast on the slopes like he was.” Over time the dream faded; Williams excelled instead at American football and even played professionally for a while in Europe as a quarterback and receiver. [column2] [/column2][column2_last] [instagram-feed] [/column2_last]   Late starter on the slopes Only at the age of 43 and when settled into a family life in Germany, did Williams finally decide he wanted to take up skiing competitively. “The first reaction I get when I tell people I’m a skier from Jamaica is always about Cool Runnings,” Williams said to reporters at the alpine skiing world championships in Colorado this week, referring […]
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