Benjamin Alexander | |
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Born | |
Education | University College London |
Occupation(s) | Olympic athlete, DJ |
Benjamin Alexander (born 8 May 1983) is a British former disc jockey and the first alpine skier to represent Jamaica in the Olympics.
Benjamin Alexander was born in Wellingborough, England to a Jamaican father, a bus driver, [1] and British mother in 1983. [2] Having won a government scholarship, he was educated at Wellingborough School, a private school in Northamptonshire. [3] [4] At the age of 17, Alexander began DJing. [5] He began studying physics at Imperial College, London before transferring to University College London to study electrical engineering , [6] [4] graduating in 2006.[ citation needed] After university he worked in wealth management in Hong Kong. [4]
In 2010, Alexander quit finance to pursue DJing professionally. He spent a decade touring in 30 different countries [7]—eventually performing at Burning Man starting in 2011. [8] By 2015, he was hosting a radio show as well as a weekly party in Ibiza, Spain while co-founding the award-winning music festival, Further Future. [9] Alexander retired from DJing in 2018 but kept his board seat with the charity Robot Heart, a well-known Burning Man camp. [10]
In 2016, Alexander was invited to DJ a ski trip in Whistler, British Columbia, where he had his first mountain lesson. [5] Alexander began pursuing skiing professionally at the end of 2019 after attending the 2018 Winter Olympics as a spectator. [9] He chose to represent Jamaica in international skiing as he acquired Jamaican nationality through his father. [6]
Alexander's first official race was on 9 January 2020, and he qualified for the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics on 13 January 2022. [11] In preparation of the 2022 games, Alexander maintained weekly mentorship calls with Dudley Stokes, the former Jamaican Olympic bobsledder, since the beginning of 2020. [2]
Alexander raced the giant slalom event on 13 February 2022, finishing in 46th place (last). [12]