Sparky

Name: TJ Baldwin
Age: 16 yrs old
Date of Birth: August 1990
Where he grew up: Long Stratton & Tharston, Norfolk
Age he started skiing: 6 yrs old
The first competition he won: At the age of 9, he won the Eastern Region championships at the end of his first season.
His Ranking: Currently ranked No. 1 and the best U16 skier in Great Britain.
Education: He has been to all 3 schools in Long Stratton and is now studying for his GCSE’s.

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Profile
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.

In 2002, TJ started training on snow at the British Ski Academy (BSA) in Les Houches, France, and has trained there for the last 4 seasons. He spends 8 to 12 weeks in the winter months combining skiing with fitness and schooling, and during summer and autumn he spends 3 to 6 weeks training on the glaciers throughout Europe.

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News
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.