The Northants DJ tuning in for Jamaica ahead of Beijing 2022

By Ben Stevenson

From his training camp lodge in Storklinten, North Sweden, Benjamin Alexander spoke candidly about his journey from leafy Northamptonshire to the Austrian Alps and the FIS Alpine Skiing circuit.

He started travelling the world as an international DJ and made a crucial pit-stop – a heli-skiing party in the Canadian Rockies – that set in motion his dream to become Jamaica’s first Alpine skier at an Olympic Winter Games, in Beijing 2022.

A ‘Rockie’ Start

Although born and raised in England, Alexander has spent most of his adult life crossing borders, shifting from a lucrative finance job in Asia to jet-setting as an international DJ, all before his Olympic pursuit began.

The British-born Jamaican credits his travels for giving him an international outlook and for leading him to the allure of skiing – the sport that has changed his life.

“The initial attraction was when I was invited to DJ at a heli-ski lodge in Canada,” Alexander says.

“We were flown to the top of the mountain to join the skiers for lunch. When I first saw the terrain, in this remote part of British Columbia, with not a soul around for tens if not hundreds of miles, I was just taken aback by the scenery. I’d never seen snow like that before in my life.

“And then at the end of lunch, my friends just put on powder skis and disappeared off down the side of the mountain. I was like, ok I want to do this, this is incredible.”

From that moment, Alexander started skiing sporadically with his friends while on the DJ circuit.

Three years later, in 2018, he had his lightbulb moment: “I did a week in Revelstoke, followed by going to the Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, followed by a week in Niseko, Japan, and three weeks across Patagonia – both sides, Chile and Argentina. That was when I fell in love with the sport,” he explains.

“Then I went to the Winter Olympics and noticed there were only three Jamaican athletes. So a little bit of an idea was forming there. It wasn’t until then that I decided to retire from DJing and said, ‘Ok, what’s the next fun project in my life going to be?’ And I decided that would be skiing.”

Alexander set about committing himself to the sport, crediting his group of friends for pushing him to consider competing at the Olympic Games for Jamaica, a country he qualifies for through his father, joking about the parallels with the 1993 Disney film ‘Cool Runnings’.

While the comparisons may feel tiresome and stereotypical from the outside, Alexander remains highly motivated by the film, which immortalises the 1988 Jamaican boblsed team’s journey to the 1988 Calgary Winter Olympics.

He has enlisted Dudley Stokes, the pilot of that team, as his mentor and leaned on his experiences from four Winter Olympic Games, tapping into the guidance needed to plan an Olympic qualification attempt under the flag of a small nation.

“Dudley has a lot of experience. He understands the complexity of being in a place where, maybe ‘you shouldn’t be’ and having to be a fighter and scrape together a tiny budget to make things happen – so his main input is almost as a mental coach.”

In January 2019, Alexander sought the counsel of another former Winter Olympian, Europa Cup skier Gordon Gray, telling the American about his plans and asking for his advice. After watching him for a few hours, Gray said Alexander’s technique was ‘terrible’ but was amazed that – having skied for just 25 days in total and had two lessons – the rookie was somehow managing to keep up with him. Technique can be learnt, was Gray’s view; fearlessness not so much.

Media Relations

Without doubt, the most impressive thing about Alexander’s road to Beijing has been his ability to control his own narrative.

Having spent ten years as a globetrotting DJ, without the support of a manager or agent, he has developed crucial transferable communication skills. These abilities have helped him to develop personalised messaging that has helped him get his story out.

Alexander estimates his Olympic bid will cost him upwards of £100,000, with sponsors covering about 15% of the project so far and the rest is coming from savings and loans. Capturing much-needed media attention is vital to securing as much external funding as possible.

Alexander added: “If I get across the line and qualify, I know that I’m going to be able to recuperate a lot of those funds.

“By virtue of having a network of people around the world, who themselves have been very successful in their own right, I’ve had offers to help once I get to qualification level. So I feel very confident that once I get my toes over the line I’ll recuperate all of my expenses.”

Alexander is using his commercial nous to achieve this, such as his merchandising of a Jamaica Ski Team jacket for the Olympic Games. He will use the jacket to sell logo placements to companies that are keen to associate their brands with his extraordinary journey.

When he’s not trying to achieve qualification time on the slopes, the 38-year-old spends his time contacting journalists and appearing on podcasts and YouTube channels.

Alexander is very proactive and aggressive with his media relations approach, citing 80% of his coverage as a result of contacting journalists directly.

“I like to think of a story and the interest the media have in it as a huge tool,” he says.

“Keep pushing that energy into getting that ball up to speed and rolling. You never know who’s reading an agency newsletter or listening to a niche podcast that only has a few hundred listeners. That someone may be able to connect you to a sponsor or maybe the host of a bigger podcast, for example.

“I know that absolutely everything I need in the world, whether it’s an introduction to a CEO of a huge company, or direct financing, whatever, it is either already in my network, or one step removed from it.”

Alexander values social media, viewing it as a highly functional means to further promote himself and gain support. He is persistent with his posting activity – constantly sharing videos and pictures of himself on the mountain or in the locker room – and is resolute in making sure his journey remains front and centre in the minds of contacts in his social network.

“There are so many skiers out there who fall short financially or they're going to come up short because they didn't get enough media attention, so they didn't get any sponsors. I'm really good at that side of it. I mean, if the gold medal was based on the number of column inches that you get then I would have the gold medal. But unfortunately, I also need to be decent enough at the skiing, which is what I'm working on right now.”

In a world where there are constant distractions and endless information overload online, it can be daunting attempting to build a following.

Alexander’s self-communications approach is refreshing and a prime example of what can be achieved by telling an exceptional story – and being relentless with it.

Trailblazing a Pathway

Winter sports have always been predominantly contested by white athletes, due in no small part to the lack of snow in warmer climes.

However, Alexander is a beacon of hope for those dreaming that one day the sport can have heroes that look like them and he is keen to stress that he doesn’t see skiing – and other winter sports – as inherently racist.

“I've received nothing but awesome support from all of the people in and around this sport,” he says.

“The reason that a lot of minorities don't ski is that their parents didn't ski, or that their parents don't have the disposable income to afford a ski holiday.

“The majority of black people live in urban centres away from mountains, and I think that you need to have one of those three things: Family skiing background, lots of disposable income, and being near to a mountain.

“So it's not a racist thing, it’s more of a generational thing. I think this will change, but it's not an overnight fix.”

This is a key objective for Alexander after Beijing 2022, leaving a legacy that lays the foundations for future minority athletes in winter sports.

While there will not be another Olympic attempt after this one, he plans to remain involved with the sponsors and contact network he has built over the last few years.

Undertaking a philanthropic endeavour is one goal – he wishes to continue putting his message out, encouraging people from minority backgrounds to take up winter sports.

Setting up a foundation to share this knowledge is the other – Alexander is aware that there are talented young skiers out there, from Jamaica and other small nations, with a higher ceiling than himself. He wants to share his experience to guide them and has already identified three prospects he is hoping to guide towards the 2026 games in Milano Cortina. 

“I really want to give back to all of the people who have helped me and to help the next generation of skiers come through,” he explains.

“Then it doesn't become a selfish pursuit of some guy going to the Olympics. It actually becomes more like the Cool Runnings bobsled team where you're blazing a path for other people to follow with less resistance.”

For Alexander, success on this front means creating a future pathway for skiers from Jamaica and other under-represented nations: “If I can come out of the Olympics and inspire a bunch of people and be involved with future athletes, helping them out with everything that I've learned, in the same way as Dudley Stokes and the Jamaica 1988 Bobsled team inspired me – that’s success.”

Whether Alexander’s qualification bid proves to be successful or not, his message extends beyond elite athletic performance, and the impact of his story transcends Olympic sport itself.

If a British-Jamaican DJ can put skis on for the first time at the age of 32 and make it to an Olympic Games in just six years, there is hope for us all that nothing is impossible.

Learn more about Benjamin Alexander at www.benji.ski and follow him on Instagram @benji.ski