Leeds Beckett University - City Campus,
Woodhouse Lane,
LS1 3HE
The ski's the limit for student brothers
Robert and James Machon, aged 19 and 21 from Sheffield, are combining their student life as first years in Sports Coaching and Sports Performance with life as competitive skiers as they have been part of the England Team since the age of 13 and 15. James has held the British Freeski Champion title for three years.
The brothers have just returned from America where Robert finished fourth in the Gatorade Freeflow Tour and James was placed 29thin the Dew Tour, the second biggest skiing competition in the world. Robert has also recently qualified for the British University Indoor Championships at the end of this month, held at Castleford Snow Zone.
Robert said: "We both started skiing with our parents on family holidays and when I turned 11 we started racing training at Sheffield Ski Village. We then competed in racing for a year and started doing freestyle as well, which we found that we prefer. We then began competing which was something we really wanted to do as we're both really competitive. Since joining the England Team it's become our favourite sport and we're hoping to aim for the Winter Olympics in2014."
"We're both feeling really good about the British World Championships: it will be our seventh year in a row and James will be looking to defend his title. We are very used to competing against each other but it's a big positive as we train together and push each other to get better. James tends to beat me so it's always good motivation for me to keep improving."