Ambassador Fasel hosted a lunch reception at the Houses of Parliament to celebrate a distinctly British-Swiss form of diplomacy: skiing. The event was held to promote the 2018 edition of the annual British-Swiss Parliamentary Ski Week, which will for the 62nd time bring together MPs from the UK and Switzerland on the slopes of Davos. This longevity probably makes the ski week the oldest inter-parliamentary sports event in the world. 

Not only history was celebrated but also the future, as the event provided the opportunity to honour an emerging talent of British skiing: mogul skier Thomas Gerken-Schofield was presented with the Evie Pinching Award by the Ski Club of Great Britain. Named after Britain’s first skiing world champion and double gold medallist at Innsbruck in 1936, the award celebrates the next generation of snow sports athletes. With the support of the Embassy and Switzerland Tourism the 19-year-old mogul skier from Chelmsford, Essex, has the fantastic opportunity to travel to Zermatt to take part in a training camp with elite Swiss mogul skiers.