ON YOUR SKIS PLEASE, PIPPA
Having already furnished her sideboard with awards for Number One Society Singleton and even, ahem, Rear of the Year, Pippa Middleton can now add a finisher’s medal for completing the Vasaloppet in Western Sweden, one of the world’s toughest and biggest ski races.
The cross-country race, based on Swedish leader Gustav Vasa’s attempt to gather peasants for a revolt against occupying Danes in 1522, is a staggering 56 miles long and something of a challenge for even the professionals. But it probably came as no surprise to those who know her that Pippa finished a respectable 412th place last weekend among a field of 15,800 male and female competitors. After all, she did win a sports scholarship to Marlborough College.
She is four inches shorter and a year younger than her sister, the Duchess of Cambridge, but every bit the athlete. Rubbing shoulders on the gruelling race with thousands of other competitors, she looked immaculate throughout – despite skiing in gruelling conditions for seven hours, 13 minutes and 36 seconds. In fact, she finished only 26 minutes behind her brother, James, who also took part, even though, in her own words, she had ‘never really skied crosscountry before’.
‘I must congratulate Pippa,’ a race spokesman said. ‘She had a fantastic performance. What she achieved was really impressive for a first timer. She was obviously fit and in very good shape.’
And as if her admirable time – no doubt fuelled by local speciality blabarssoppa (blueberry soup) – wasn’t enough, Pippa and her brother also raised thousands of pounds for Magic Breakfast, a charity providing pre-school meals for poor inner-city children. Her work as an ambassador for Too Many Women has also raised funds for the breast cancer charity and helped put it on the map.
Perhaps there’s a place for her at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi.
On the slopes and