SOCHI. The big -->> O rings.
THE Olympics
I am on a flight from Moscow to London after the most epic 10 days in Russia, having qualified 2 weeks before we flew out, riding Xgames, 1 night at home and then straight on a flight to Russia for my first Olympics it has been an insane whirlwind of excitement and non stop goings on!
First off the Opening ceremony, was rad, when I started snowboarding for fun with my buddies I never ever imagined I would walk out into a stadium wearing the Team GB kit waving flags, with such a strong team, it was such a unique experience I will never forget and also a great place to meet other members of the GB crew as we were not all located in the same zone, we had 3 different villages, Costal, Mountain - that was our zone along with Bobsled, Skeleton, and Alpine ski, and then Endurance. So this brought us all together.
Being in Sochi, representing Team GB in our four Man Slope team with Jamie Nicholls, Billy Morgan and Jenny Jones was an honour and I really hope you all enjoyed SLOPESTYLE!
Here is myself Jenny Jones and Jenna McCorkell, she’s another Northern Irish hommie so it was cool to meet her! As just the 2 of us from NI representing.
The Contest- There was lots of speculation and news about the Slopestyle course in Sochi, when we rocked up it was crazy, not going to exaggerate, the scale of the course was something we were not expecting as last year our test event didn’t run due to lack of snow, it didn’t seem to be a problem as the course they had put together was next level, I’ve never seen jumps so big, after a day or 2 of riding it in, things worked out, they tweaked the jumps, lowered the jump take offs slightly and it all began to ride well. The rail section was definitely intense, super fast and not much time for error and correction, the really cool thing is that there were 2 sides to the jumps and the majority of the girls in the field rode the big side, I think that is super positive and just shows the direction and progression in which our sport is going, so I think this was a huge step for female snowboarding.
Me and my hair twin Bro- SAGE KOTSENBURG WON GOLD. So stoked for this guy, couldn't have gone to a nicer chap.
In the Semi Finals I decided to go for the go big or go home approach, our new phrase amongst the team “JUST HUCK IT” haha after Billy Morgan quoted that during finals. I went for the double backflip and got it to my feet but couldn’t get a clean ride out, I am so amped I went for that as I really wanted to show everyone the direction in which we are going with snowboarding, progression!
Cab under flip on the first jump.
I didn’t make it into finals so I headed up to the booth with the BBC to commentate, little did I know an hour later I would be rooting for my team GB team mate and one of my best buds Jones as she took home the first ever female medal on snow for team GB ! an honour it was and such an emotional day and probably the craziest 24 hours of my life! It truly was a game changer.
Claire Balding is a bit of a legend, fun hanging out with the BBC boys too, Ed Leigh, Graham Bell and Tim Warwood thanks for having me in the booth, and to Will Perry from 5 live, that was FUN.
The team in Sochi... RAD, so good to have such a friendly bunch in HQ, the support staff, big ups to our coach who lays low behind the scenes Hamish Mcknight, and wax tech Euan Baxter for having our back the last months, Alison Robb aka ALI G, physio legend, its been 10 weeks on the road with one day at home, 6 contests, 16 flights. . THANKS for all your support.
THE MOUNTAIN VILLAGE TEAM - without Billy Morgan + Jamie Nicholls as they went on to compete the day after the Opener!
#justhuckit
And to this crew. YOU RULE. So much love for my family and friends back home, and to all of you in the Uk who got up at 6.30 am to watch! hehe.
I have more pictures from behind the scenes so will get those up this week! Hope this gives you a little insight into THE OLYMPICS. PS. LIZZIE YARNOLD won another medal for Team GB, just incase you didn't know! ha. ONETEAM.