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Jamaica's first Olympic skier to compete in Beijing

This former DJ is Jamaica’s first Olympic alpine skier

Benjamin Alexander only took up skiing six years ago

but has qualified for the Beijing Winter Olympics

"Five years ago I was invited to a heliski trip in Canada, and I was invited just to play music as the DJ, to hang out, and on one of the lunch times they flew us up in the helicopter to meet the skiers for lunch. At the end of lunch these guys popped on their powder skis, and I saw them do something that I thought was superhuman. It looked incredible, and I decided there and then that I want when it's join them I wouldn't come back on this annual trip as just the DJ ever again, I wanted to come back as a skier. I had my first ever lesson on a mountain in February of 2016, and then Christmas of 2017, and my 9th day of skiing, I was actually skiing with the guys."

Alexander is mentored by former bobsledder Dudley Stokes

whose team took part in four Olympics between 1988 and 1998

inspiring the movie ‘Cool Runnings’

''Skiing is predominantly a white sport and whenever I'd be out skiing I would be the Black representative, and not only that, my friends knew of my Jamaican heritage so they would always talk about Cool Runnings, Jamaican on Ice, you should go to the Olympics. And after going to the Olympics as a spectator in 2018 and realizing that the powerhouse of the Summer Games, Jamaica, only had three athletes that year, I thought maybe there's a chance. And so here we are now chatting about going to the Olympics as the first ever Alpine ski racer which is kind of nuts."