Alpine skiing youngster takes aim at representing Ja

JULIEN TURONE was born to ski.

He was also raised with a lot of Jamaican pride. His grandmother, Doreen Brown, was the former head of TV and Radio at Jamaica Information Service (JIS) and served as Jamaica’s information attaché at the Jamaican Consulate in New York for several years. She was also a former Miss Jamaica. His grandfather, Leroy Brown, has been involved in sports in Jamaica for decades and is one of the longest-serving members of the Jamaica Boxing Association. He also represented Jamaica as a judge in the 1980 and 1984 Olympics. When it comes to Julien’s athletic acumen, his mother, Francine, was a track and field sprinter, winning numerous medals at Girls Champs, competing for Immaculate and nationally, and his father

Giacomo was an avid skier in Italy. While Julien did fencing, cross-country running, riding and track and field for several years, and rows crew in the off-season, his real passion has been skiing, something he has been doing since the age of two.

Julien, who is fluent in Italian, grew up spending Christmases skiing in the Italian Alps with his parents and his father’s side of the family, close to where the Milano-Cortina Winter Olympics 2026 will be hosted next February. Once his passion took over and his mother begrudgingly resigned herself to the fact that she had officially lost the battle of spending Christmases in the Jamaican sunshine, she did the next best thing which was to bring Jamaica to the slopes and dressed him from head to toe in Jamaica’s colours, and even stitched a little Jamaican flag on his ski jacket.

When sporting gear company, Spyder, sponsored and supported Errol Kerr, the first Jamaican skier to represent Jamaica for skiercross in the 2010 Winter Olympics, and created a Jamaica Ski Team line, she hunted it down and got the jacket for Giacomo, and a junior jacket for Julien.

When the COVID pandemic hit when Julien was 12, the family were stranded in upstate New York, and in an effort to get him outside having fun with other kids, Julien’s parents signed him up for a race team. He took to it like a duck to water, and as they say, the rest is history.

Last year, he transferred from his school in Manhattan, New York, to attend a boarding school in Berkshire, Massachusetts, so that he could ski more and also focus on Federation Internationale de Ski (FIS) races, which are required to compete internationally. The move paid off with him finishing the Tri-State season ranked top five among under-18s. He made it onto the podium numerous times that season and qualified for the Eastern Finals where he won a second-place finish in U18 Super G, the other races were rained out.

Julien is heading to pre-season training this month in Switzerland, then plans on coming to Jamaica when he returns from ski camp in mid-August to meet with both the Jamaica Ski Federation and the Jamaica Olympic Association, which have both been immensely supportive, and actively assisted with getting him released from the US Ski Association and approval of his nationality change with FIS (the global governing body for ski and snow sports), so he could fulfill his dream of skiing for Jamaica.

‘Unintentional compromise’

Asked about his current path, Julien commented, “I’ve never really had any thought other than that. Given the opportunity, I’d always represent Jamaica, maybe because I think that’s what I’ve always done. People would stop us on the slopes and comment when they saw our jackets and ask if we really skied for Jamaica. They thought it was a novelty, but I thought it was just normal.”

“I grew up in a very Jamaica-proud house, and my parents actively instilled both their cultures in me. We travelled to both Jamaica and Italy every year, and frankly there are lots of similarities. The biggest difference is my mother loves the beach, and my father prefers the mountains, so I guess skiing for Jamaica is sort of my unintentional compromise – they’re both happy. I’m lucky that I have a strong support system of friends and family, and whilst it may have seemed unusual to a few at first, as I’ve gotten older and it’s become more of a reality, everyone is just really excited for me.”

Asked about his goals, without hesitation he replied, “The Olympics. I mean, that’s every athlete’s dream, right?”

“I want to ski and represent Jamaica on any level I can, even as just an ambassador, diversifying the sport by opening doors and winning medals.

“Jamaica has a history of incredible athletes. If we had better access to winter sports, we’d do great things there also. We’re seeing that more and more. There are a lot of young Jamaican athletes coming up and proving themselves in the junior Olympics, and hopefully in the Winter Olympics. Each step we take makes it easier for the next Jamaican skier. Like they say, a rising tide lifts all boats. That’s one of the things I truly respect about Benji Alexander, who represented Jamaica in the last Winter Olympics. He didn’t do it to win. He did it to inspire us and pave the path for people like me. We had a great meeting a couple years ago, and he’s so supportive. This next generation, as a team, we’re young, younger than the average national ski team, but we’re excited and committed. And being young means we have that many more years to grow, compete, and open new doors.

“This is also an expensive sport - you can’t just grab a ball and go outside to practice. To train, you have to travel and go where the snow and mountains are, and that’s expensive and time consuming, not to mention the gear, coaches, etc., so yes, it takes a community to make it happen. I think like everything, it’s just about access, support and funding. If you have the talent and discipline, and people who support you, there isn’t much you can’t do. The theme of the upcoming Olympics is ‘Sognando Insieme’, and I think collectively that’s what we’re all doing, dreaming together.”