Photo taken by Racer Ready |
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After a frustrating 2006/7 season due to the bad snow conditions, with many FIS races being cancelled, TJ ended it on a high by winning another 4 British titles. The British Land championships were again held in Meribel in March and April with some of the best conditions seen throughout the whole year. TJ proved himself to be the very best U17 skier in GB in the speed events by winning the Junior 1 category (U17) in both the Senior & Junior Downhill races; and the Senior & Junior Super G races. He also won the U18 category in the Senior Super G and won the Overall Junior (U21) title in the Junior Super G. This is the first time ever that a Junior 1 racer has won the U21 category. By winning this race outright he also took the International FIS prize, his first ever outright win in a FIS race.
He was also placed 2nd in J1 in the Junior Slalom (after falling & hiking back up!) and 2nd Junior (U21) in the Overall Combined standings.
The following week at the Scottish FIS champs held in Courchevel, he continued his success by winning the J1 category in the Giant Slalom & also being placed 3rd overall scoring his lowest ever FIS points score.
The FIS world ranking points he scored at all these races ensured that he made the selection criteria to be automatically selected for the British Land Ski Team (FIS Team) for the 2007/8 season. This is a full time training/racing programme that will take TJ away for 9 months of the year, training alongside Finlay Mickel, Alain & Noel Baxter for some of the time.
His world rankings in J1 are: Downhill 100th, Super G 147th, Giant Slalom 156th, & Slalom 318th.
The early part of the season saw TJ comfortably win the GB time trials for the European Youth Winter Olympic Festival (EYWOF) to be held in Jaca Spain in February. Unfortunately due to very poor conditions and British Airways breaking his race Slalom skis, TJ crashed out in both events when looking good for a top 10 result.
He also competed in around 20 other FIS races in Europe gaining a number of top 5 placings in his age group and top 15 overall results; scoring some excellent FIS points scores. He raced against several World Cup racers including Ivica Kostelic, Didier Cuche, Didier Defago & Ambrosi Hoffmann.
In May he started training with the British Land team, spending time away in Austria, Holland & Scotland. In August he will train in Switzerland before heading off to Chile for a month of training/racing. In early October he will return to Austria almost permanently to prepare for the start of the European race season in early December.
TJ ended last season as a record breaker.
In the British Junior Championships in April held at Meribel he did the clean sweep of all 3 titles in his age group, winning the Slalom, Giant Slalom (GS) & Super G.
In winning the GS he also scored just 61.02 FIS world ranking points, this was the best score in any event by a first year J1 male GB racer, had he scored another race at that level he would have been ranked inside the top 40 in the world for his YOB.
His FIS points score in winning the Super G also helped to make his end of season points the lowest ever by a first year J1 GB male by 25 points!
When he won the Slalom he scored his best points of the season (75.24). This was again one of the best ever by a first year J1 GB male.
He has been selected for the British Youth Ski team for 2006/7 (his 2nd year) & the English Alpine ‘A’ team for 2006/7 (2nd year). He will also be training with the British Home Nations team at the BOA winter training base at Lofer in Austria for a large part of this season (06/07).
He will start this season ranked No1 in Downhill & Super G & No2 in Slalom & GS in GB (J1 age group)
In December, whilst in Norway training with the England team, he will take part in time trials for selection to the GB team going to the European Youth Olympics held in Jaca, Spain Next February. There will be 44 nations with over 1200 athletes taking part. He is one of the favourites to be selected due to his ranking & FIS points scores.
TJ’s race season starts on Dec 27th in Norway where he will take part in 8 FIS races in 13 days before returning to Austria then racing all over Europe in another 40+ FIS races until the British Champs at the end of the season in April.
Photo taken by Clifford Photography |
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TJ has been away training and racing since 24th Nov 2005, in Canada, France, Switzerland and Italy. In Canada he competed in 4 FIS races coming away with a 14th, 11th & 6th position, and He also scored less than 100 FIS seed points in a Slalom race, which is very rare in your first year of FIS racing.
After Christmas he went to the British Ski Academy in France to train and race until the middle of February. TJ raced in another 16 races in Switzerland, Italy & France again with some considerable success. In a slalom race at Chamonix, France he came 5th and again scored less than 100 FIS points; which now ranks him 2nd in his YOB and 4th in his age group in Great Britain. He also was placed 8th in another slalom race at St Gervais, France.
In Giant Slalom he gained a 6th place in a race at St Remy in Italy and just missed out on getting below 100 FIS points, He is still ranked 2nd in his YOB and 5th in his age group in GB.
TJ has also been competing in Super G and Downhill races. He has gradually been reducing his points in both events. In Super G he managed to score 95 points at a race in Megeve, France. This is the first time that any British male has scored below the 100 point barrier in their first season of FIS racing. He is now ranked No1 in both his YOB and age group by over 40 points. This also puts him well inside the top 20 for all males in GB and inside the top 100 in the world for his YOB. In Downhill he also ranks No1 in both his YOB and age group. This is despite using the wrong skis in one event and falling out of the start in his second race!!
TJ is now doing 10 days training before competing in the British Senior Champs at Meribel, France. He will be racing against all of the British Senior team, including Alain Baxter & Findlay Mickel. Following on from these races he will compete at the English Champs at Puy St Vincent, the Scottish Champs at Courcheval & returning to Meribel for the British Junior Champs, all of which are during the Easter Holidays.
This season TJ will again be training with the British Ski Academy at Les Houches, France. This training will combine all his schooling with both his skiing & fitness.
Prior to Christmas he will be spending 4 weeks training in Canada. He will be representing GB in 32 international FIS (Federation Internationale de Ski) races in Europe & Canada, as well as the British Championships at the end of the season. He should be ranked well inside the World’s top 100 for his age group by the end of 2005/6 season, and hopefully inside the top 50.
TJ Baldwin has just been awarded a 2012 Talented Athlete Scholarship Scheme (TASS) bursary. This is a government funded programme given to only 120 athletes from 47 sports who have been recognised as potential medallists for the 2012 Summer Olympics or the 2010 and 2014 Winter Olympics. TJ is one of only two U19 skiers to have been put on this programme.
Over the past 4 years on snow, TJ has won more British, English & Inter School Championship titles than any other boy, a total of 24 in all. They are:
- 11 British Alpine Titles (individual & team) plus 3 Silver & 1 Bronze medals. (This includes the clean sweep).
- 6 English Alpine Titles, plus 1 Silver & 2 Bronze medals.
- 7 Inter School Titles, plus 1 Bronze medal. This includes a clean sweep of all 5 Titles in 2004.
- He has also won 3 Silver and 3 Bronze medals in other British/International snow races.
3rd April, 2005 TJ did a clean sweep at the British Children’s Ski Championships by winning all 4 individual titles and 2 team titles. This has only ever been done twice before, the last time in 1998.
TJ has won 2 French Grand Prix slalom races in 2005.
TJ was placed 9th in the 2005 ‘La Scarafiotti’ International slalom race in France, racing for Team GB. This is the highest position by a British skier in this race for many years.
TJ has become a member of the British Youth Ski Team (only 6 members) & the England ‘A’ Ski Team for the 2005/6 season.
In 2003 TJ won the Radio Norfolk Sports personality of the Year award. He was then in the final of the BBC Look East Sports Personality of the Year award against, Paula Ratcliffe, Ben Cohen & Jamie Gibson, all World Champions.
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Name: TJ Baldwin
TJ Baldwin learnt to ski at the Norfolk Ski Club dry slope at Trowse, Norwich when he was just 6 years old. At the age of 9, TJ started to race for Norfolk on dry slopes and won the Eastern Region championships at the end of his first season. He then went on to win a European Championship, a British Championship, 3 more Eastern region Championships and 3 Eastern Region summer league titles. Tj was also Runner-up twice at the All England Championships.