For all that snowboarding isn’t normally a patriotic sport, the natural pride that we feel about the UK scene is emphasised by the Olympic set-up, which sees riders and athletes allocated accommodation based on where they’re from.
But although Stale Sandbech was apparently moaning about not being able to eat with his buddies from other countries, this has it’s advantages too. Because the Park and Pipe team (ie. the UK’s freeskiers and snowboarders) train and travel together, they’re obviously tight anyway, but it’s still seriously cool to see how much support they give each other.
Whitelines spent most of both slopestyle finals in the company of skiers Emma Lonsdale, Rowan Cheshire and Katie Summerhayes, who were leading the screams of support for Billy, Jenny, Jamie and Aimee.
Not only that, but the Olympic set up means you get people from totally different sports – like Skeleton Bob racer and gold medal hopeful Lizzy Yarnolds – coming down to support the snowboarders. Which is actually pretty rad, and helps create a proper team atmosphere.
