In marking what was Britain's first Alpine Ski World Cup gold medal the German daily paper echoed the tone of the French TV commentator who witnessed Konrad Bartelski’s breakthrough downhill silver at Val Gardena in the 1981 Ski World Cup series.

"Ce n'est pas possible!" he exclaimed. "C'est un anglais!" ("It's not possible! It's an Englishman!").

Bartelski’s effort remained the highest placing by a Briton in any Ski World Cup race until it was equalled by Ryding in the 2017 Kitzbühel World Cup slalom.

And now the 35-year-old from Bretherton in Lancashire has stepped up to the centre of the podium - just in time to get every British follower, and doubtless many international followers, very interested indeed about his medal prospects at the imminent Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics.

Bartelski competed at his first Winter Olympics in 1972, aged 17, and after a mid-career dip in form returned to place twelfth at the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid.

His stand-out effort the following year raised all kinds of expectations, but he never reached the podium again and retired from World Cup racing in 1983, a year before the Winter Games in Sarajevo.

Ryding’s relatively long career, which involved much practice on dry slopes in his formative years, has been one of steadfast application and steady achievement.

He was 27^th in the men’s slalom at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, 17^th at the 2014 edition in Sochi and, four years ago in Pyeongchang, ninth. That represented the best Olympic result for a British Alpine skier since Martin Bell had placed eighth in the downhill at the 1988 Winter Games in Calgary.

(This, of course, is excepting Alain Baxter's performance in coming third in the men’s slalom at the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics, only to see the bronze taken away from him having mistakenly used a US-manufactured version of the Vicks Vapor inhaler he had used to counteract nasal congestion since childhood - a version that had a variant active ingredient which caused an adverse analytical finding for a methamphetamine.

(Three hours after his triumphant performance in the Mormon and largely teetotal city, Baxter, accompanied by a press officer, joined British reporters at the bar of the Dead Goat Saloon which, full of dark beer and blues music, was like a piece of New Orleans that had been wrenched up in a twister and deposited on the arid plain of Utah.

(Many questions were asked and answered; many autographs signed; many beers consumed. It was surely The Highlander’s finest hour. Soon, all too soon, came the dreaded news of the positive test. Bloody Vicks. But I digress, and also, with a third bracket, stretch the credulity of grammar…)

While the Dead Goat Saloon turned out to be the Last Chance Saloon for Baxter, there are now valid hopes of another of those still relatively rare sightings - a British Winter Olympic medal.

But let’s not slalom too far ahead. What Ryding has done is already historic.

After a combined time of 1min 41.26sec had seen him finish ahead of two hugely talented Norwegians - 21-year-old prospect Lucas Braathen and Henrik Kristoffersen, an Olympic silver and bronze medallist who won the world giant slalom title in 2019 - an elated Ryding commented:

"I've gone blank.

"There was so much emotion when I finished and now I just, I don't know what to say, I'm normally not lost for words.

"You know, I'm 35 now, but I never stopped believing, I never stopped trying, and to bring the first victory for Great Britain in a World Cup, in Kitzbühel, I mean, I don't know if dreams are made better."

In terms of being a marker for British sporting achievement, Ryding’s is in the same territory as, for example, Sir Bradley Wiggins’s first annexation of the Tour de France title for Britain in 2012, or, in the same year, Sir Mo Farah securing the first British victory in the Olympic 10,000 metres event.

What it has done, in a different sporting context, is provide a precious template for British skiers who will feel emboldened to follow in his metaphorical wake down the slalom slopes of the world.

So just as Chris Froome and Geraint Thomas followed Sir Bradley on two wheels, and as Sir Mo followed himself on the track by retaining his Olympic title four years later in Rio, where he also completed the 5,000m/10,000m double, Ryding’s route to the top is likely soon to be followed by fellow countrymen.

However that turns out, Ryding now has a rendezvous with Olympic destiny. Can he make more British ski history? We will find out soon enough. The Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics start on February 4 and the men’s slalom is due to take place on February 16.