Finlay Mickel (born 6 December 1977) is a Scottish skiing coach and former downhill skier who competed in World Cup competitions 2000–2009 and the 2006 Winter Olympics.

Downhill skier

Mickel was born on 6 December 1977 in Edinburgh, Scotland. He was educated at

Stewart's Melville College Stewart's Melville College (SMC) is an independent day and boarding school in Edinburgh, Scotland. Classes are all boys in the 1st to 5th years and co-educational in Sixth (final) year. It has a roll of about 750 pupils. The school is twinned w ...

. He first appeared in the World Cup in Lake Louise, Canada in November 2000. His best result in the World Cup was 10th in the

Wengen Wengen () is a mountain village in the Bernese Oberland of central Switzerland. Located in the canton of Bern at an elevation of above sea level, it is part of the Jungfrauregion and has approximately 1,300 year-round residents, which swells ...

downhill Downhill may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Downhill'' (1927 film), a British film by Alfred Hitchcock * ''Downhill'' (2014 film), a British comedy directed by James Rouse * ''Downhill'' (2016 film), a Chilean thriller directed by Patrici ...

event in Switzerland, in January 2006. On 5 February 2005, he finished eleventh in the Men's Downhill event at the World Championships held in

Bormio Bormio ( lmo, Bormi, rm, italic=yes, , german: Worms im Veltlintal) is a town and ''comune'' with a population of about 4,100 located in the Province of Sondrio, Lombardy region of the Alps in northern Italy. The centre of the upper Valtellin ...

, Italy. This was the best result by a British man in the history of the World Championships, and the best in any major competition since

Martin Bell Martin Bell, (born 31 August 1938) is a British UNICEF ( UNICEF UK) Ambassador, a former broadcast war reporter and former independent politician who became the Member of Parliament (MP) for Tatton from 1997 to 2001. He is sometimes known as ...

finished eighth in the downhill at the

1988 Winter Olympics ) , nations = 57 , athletes = 1,423 (1,122 men, 301 women) , events = 46 in 6 sports (10 disciplines) , opening = February 13, 1988 , closing = February 28, 1988 , opened_by = Governor General Jeanne Sauvé , cauldron ...

Calgary Calgary ( ) is the largest city in the western Canadian province of Alberta and the largest metro area of the three Prairie Provinces. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806, maki ...

. In the

Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a multi ...

Turin Turin ( , Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. Th ...

in 2006 he finished 25th in the downhill event and 22nd in the

super G Super giant slalom, or super-G, is a racing discipline of alpine skiing. Along with the faster downhill, it is regarded as a "speed" event, in contrast to the technical events giant slalom and slalom. It debuted as an official World Cup event du ...

event.

Injuries and retirement

Mickel sustained several injuries during his career including a fractured left ankle, a ruptured right Achilles tendon, a right ankle fracture, and a fracture to his right tibia plateau. Although he recovered from each of these setbacks, after being a member of the British Alpine ski team for 12 years, he announced his retirement from the sport in May 2009 at the age of 31. He took up a coaching position with the Scottish Alpine Team.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Mickel, Finlay 1977 births Living people Sportspeople from Edinburgh Scottish male alpine skiers Alpine skiers at the 2006 Winter Olympics Olympic alpine skiers of Great Britain People educated at Stewart's Melville College Alpine skiing coaches