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 andSports Performance with life as competitive skiers as they have beenpart of the England Team since the age of 13 and 15. James has held theBritish Freeski Champion title for three years.

The brothers have just returned from America where Robertfinished 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 IndoorChampionships at the end of this month, held at Castleford Snow Zone.

Robert said: "We both started skiing with our parents onfamily holidays and when I turned 11 we started racing training atSheffield Ski Village. We then competed in racing for a year and starteddoing freestyle as well, which we found that we prefer. We then begancompeting which was something we really wanted to do as we're bothreally competitive. Since joining the England Team it's become ourfavourite sport and we're hoping to aim for the Winter Olympics in2014."

"We're both feeling really good about the British WorldChampionships: it will be our seventh year in a row and James will belooking to defend his title. We are very used to competing against eachother but it's a big positive as we train together and push each otherto get better. James tends to beat me so it's always good motivation forme to keep improving."