West Dunbartonshire Arts and Heritage
Lesley Beck, International Women’s Day.
In a departure from our normal format we’re going to shine a light on an exceptional Dumbarton sportswoman to celebrate International Women’s Day.
Lesley Beck was born in Glasgow in 1964 and grew up at Crosslet Avenue in Dumbarton. At her peak she was Britain’s top female skier.
Lesley began her skiing journey at the age of eight, learning at Bearsden Ski Club and spending winter weekends in the Cairngorms.
Her family are all keen skiers and her brothers Laurence and Colin both raced for Scotland. Lesley however took her skiing to the next level, skiing internationally from the age of 17 and representing Britain at the Winter Olympics in 1984 and 1988, competing in the international circuit and being British slalom champion multiple times.
Despite her drive and success, Lesley often found barriers in her way as a female skier. She spent considerable time chasing sponsorship and when she began her career the British skiing team only had one coach who spent the bulk of their time with the men.
Beck noted herself in an interview with the Lennox Herald in 1990 that sports journalists, and particularly the BBC’s Ski Sunday programme, were only interested in the men’s competitions with women having to do extraordinary things just to be given coverage.
Alpine skiing is an incredibly punishing sport and despite competing through various injuries Lesley retired from the international circuit in 1991 to focus on a business course.
Skiing however pulled her back in in 1995 when she began competing in Telemark skiing, a completely different discipline to alpine skiing, where the heel is not bound to the ski and the body adopting a courtesy position going into turns.
She went on to compete at the inaugural World Telemark Championships at Lillehammer in Norway.
Lesley continues to champion skiing and winter sports and has gone down as one of the finest female skiers Britain has ever produced.
Pictures: West Dunbartonshire Council Arts & Heritage service