Chiswick's Teenage Skiing Ace Gets Support From Local Business

To boost her chances of one day becoming country's top female skier

Local businesses have got behind Chiswick's 17 year old ski racer Franki Simonds to boost her chances of one day emulating Chemmy Alcott, currently the country's top female skier.

Skiing is a sport that requires supreme fitness as well as the ability to ski well. Anyone who watched “Super Stars” on TV will have noticed that snow sports dominated in this all round test of fitness.

Still at school, Franki knows that there is a long way to go and maintaining the drive to keep up the fitness training is certainly the hardest part. Once she goes full time, at the end of the next school year, Franki will be doing training for 6 to 8 hours a day 6 days a week.

Even now Franki is trying to fit about two hours of fitness a day around her AS levels and when she does get away to the slopes for training she will often be up by 5.30 am, skiing intensively for 4 hours and then doing fitness for several hours in the afternoon – ski training camps are certainly no holiday!

To achieve this sort of fitness requires a huge amount of training, and specialist equipment and facilities which is where local business have stepped in.

Sutton Road North's West 4 Gym have helped Franki by providing her with reduced membership costs as well as invaluable help and advice whilst training. Franki's mother Caroline saays "They not only have excellent personal trainers who have been able to develop a training program for Franki, but there is also someone on had to offer encouragement, support and advice when she goes there to train."

The High Road's Evans Cycles and Ski Bartlett in Hillingdon have also helped out with discounts and organising sponsorship deals for the teenager.

July 3, 2007