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Andy Murray is a former British professional tennis player and current coach. He was the 2012 US Open Champion, 2012 and 2016 Olympic Singles Champion, the 2013 and 2016 Wimbledon Champion, and was a member of the victorious Great Britain Davis Cup squad in 2015. He was ranked number one in men’s singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) for 41 weeks, including as the year-end number one in 2016. He won a total of $64,687,542 in Prize Money Singles & Doubles Combined, with a total of 739 and 46 titles before his retirement last year.
Since Murray’s retirement, he’s had a chance to participate in activities outside of tennis, such as golf and skiing. He stayed away from skiing during his career to avoid being injured. However, since he is now officially retired, he finally got to try his skills off the tennis court and instead test them out on the mountain. Recently, on Sir Chris Hoy’s Sporting Misadventures Podcast, he talked about his first experience skiing, which didn’t end well for Murray.
He admitted on the podcast that he was previously hesitant to golf or ski because he would have felt guilty if he felt sore or hurt and couldn’t practice or compete. Those days are over, and Murray and his family have the chance to hit the slopes. He said on the podcast that he was excited about the opportunity to ski for the first time, but it didn’t go as well as he thought it would. “The first two days were shocking; I couldn’t get off the ski lifts, and my wife refused to go on the ski lift with me because it’s just embarrassing, isn’t it?” Murray said with a laugh on the podcast.
Things continued to go south when Murray and his brother-in-law tried to get up the mountain at the end of the day and found out the ski lift they went to was no longer operating and was shut down for the day. The lift attendant told them the lift was closed and the only way to get down the mountain was to ski down to another lift that would take them back up. By this time of the day, the sun was going down, and the conditions were getting a little icy, Murray said.
It was about two miles (three kilometers) for Murray and his brother-in-law to ski down to the lift, and he knew immediately that he was in trouble going down the trail. Murray admitted he didn’t know how to stop at this stage of his early ski career and had been on all beginner slopes up to that point. Murray was experiencing that horrible feeling that all first-time skiers feel when they do not know what to do when they get into “trouble” while going down the mountain. He realized that he couldn’t turn and was going to have to go straight down the mountain. It was probably not the best idea, but what beginner skier makes good decisions? Once Murray found out he was in a situation he couldn’t control, he did the only thing he could do. “I’m in trouble here, I’m in trouble here, I don’t know how to stop!” Murray said to his brother-in-law as he skied past him going down the slope.
All beginners have been faced with this situation, and most “fix” this problem by doing the same thing: they bail. Murray did just that, throwing himself on the ground to stop and then started walking down the rest of the mountain. “It is pretty scary when you are picking up speed and don’t really know how to stop. The only way to stop is to throw yourself on the ground,” Murray said. He didn’t get hurt, but ski patrol came to assist him in getting down the rest of the mountain safely. Ski patrol’s job isn’t to assist skiers who miss the last chair up the mountain before it closes, and Murray understands that. Their job is to help skiers or snowboarders who have been injured and get them off the mountain and to safety.” The rescue teams were not too pleased because they usually deal with intoxicated British skiers who have ended up stuck on the slopes rather than someone like me who just misjudged my abilities at the end of the day. It was a bit embarrassing, to say the least,” Murray said with a little bit of laughter but more humility.
Murray learned his lesson and admitted that he was doing better on the slopes by the end of his trip. “By the end, I got into it, and I really started enjoying it, and we’re gonna go again in April. It’s an amazing holiday with the children, and they all really enjoy it,” Murray said. Having finally gotten his opportunity to ski and hit the slopes, Murray did leave the mountain with some wisdom. “You can get yourself in some tricky situations on the slopes, but all of us avoided serious injury. So that was a success,” Murray said.
