Chemmy Alcott's marriage to sportsman, amputation warning after ski injury, BBC ban

Former Team GB skiing star Chemmy Alcott has been one of the more recognisable Olympians during the BBC's coverage of the Winter Games in 2026.

The 43-year-old dominated British skiing before moving into broadcasting. She was a seven-time national champion and also competed at the Winter Olympics four times between 2002 and 2014.

She joined the BBC's broadcast team for the 2018 games in Pyeongchang and has provided expert analysis on skiing events during this year's Milan-Cortina edition. Team GB had three competitors in alpine skiing in Italy, with Billy Major and Dave Ryding finishing their runs in 16th and 17th place respectively.

Alcott has hit the headlines throughout her sporting career and not always for what she's done on the slopes. Here's all you need to know about the Olympic icon.

Chimene 'Chemmy' Alcott, who was born in Hove in East Sussex, began skiing from a young age. She was still in her teens when she made her debut in senior competition and won two medals - silver in the Super G and bronze in the Giant slalom - at the 1999 European Youth Winter Olympic Festival.

She competed in all five disciplines at the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City - Super G, Giant Slalom, Downhill, Slalom and Combined. She didn't pick up a medal, though, with Croatian legend Janica Kostelic ending the games with three golds.

Alcott's husband Dougie Crawford is also a champion skier and was once ranked as the British No.1 in Downhill. The couple married in 2014 and welcomed a son, Lochlan Arthur MacDonald Crawford, in 2017.

Throughout her career, Alcott was forced to battle back from injury on more than one occasion. She broke her leg on several occasions, the first of them in 2010, with her eventual retirement coming after warnings from her doctor.

"[My surgeon] sat me down and said that if I kept going competitively and crashed, he would have to amputate my leg from the knee down, because I don’t have any bone any more. It shocked me," Alcott told The Sun.

“He said, ‘Look, this is what you’re risking. I let you do it to get to the Olympics, but this is what you’re risking every time you experience that G-force and go 80mph’.

“I was like, ‘Right, OK, OK, I love ski racing, I love the mountains but I love this life more’. I probably needed someone to be that severe with it. The best thing that happened to me was that I had to retire.”

Since calling it quits, Alcott has taken to broadcasting like a duck to water. However, her time on our screens hasn't been without the occasional hiccup.

She is an ambassador for Snow Finel and got a ticking off from BBC higher-ups when wearing knitwear from the clothing brand while presenting Ski Sunday. The presenter is reported to have been given a reminder regarding "commercial conflicts of interest", with a BBC spokesperson later saying "Chemmy will not be wearing the brand in question on air again and has been spoken to about this".