SIBLINGS Lloyd and Elodie Wallace have been picked to represent Great Britain in a series of five freestyle skiing competitions in Switzerland and Italy this month.

Lloyd and Elodie Wallace, from Semley, south of Warminster, will contest  two Europa Cup contests in both Airolo, Switzerland and Valmalenco, Italy, followed by the World Junior Championships on March 25, also in Valmalenco.

The duo's speciality is aerials, where skiers fly off a steep snow jump and perform multiple somersaults and twists before landing and skiing out in chopped snow.

Lloyd, 19, and Elodie, 16, are both former gymnastics scholars from Port Regis school in Shaftesbury and have transferred their acrobatic skills to the winter sport, most recently seen in the recent Sochi Olympics.

Lloyd just missed selection for the Sochi Games but, with his sister, isnow focused on moving up the international ranks with an eye on the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea.

Lloyd said: “I’m really psyched to get out there for these comps, particularly after watching the Sochi Olympics and knowing I was close to qualifying.

"After travelling to Beijing, Quebec and New York it will be good to do these events closer to home so all the family can come.”

Elodie added: “It is normally pretty warm in the Alps by the end of March so it will be good if we can compete in sunshine rather than a freezing snowstorm, but well be ready for anything.”

Lloyd is reading Sports Performance at the University of Bath, while Elodie is a lower sixth form pupil at Kings Bruton.

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