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After being cancelled the day previous due to bad weather, the men’s boarder cross action finally got under way at Sochi’s Rosa Khutor resort.
The weather conditions were still very marginal at best, with the odd shower and patch of fog drifting in and out of proceedings.
Rain and snow go together like water and oil, and what was once a fast and responsive course for the Women’s event, became a slow, soggy and sticky track for the Men. Even the best wax technicians were going to be up against it with conditions like this.
Australia’s gold medal hopeful Alex “Chumpy” Pullin was the centre of the media spotlight for a number of reasons. Rated as a genuine contender for the boarder cross gold medal, combined with his handsome good looks, shaped Pullin into one of the faces of the Olympic marketing campaign.
Bruce Brockhoff, the father of Pullin’s female boarder cross teammate Belle Brockoff had seized the opportunity to write to the media on the day after his daughter’s competition to complain about the division in the Australian snowboard team funding.
In his letter he directed a lot of anger toward the preferential treatment Pullin was receiving and his need to perform to justify the spending.
While Bruce Brockoff did raise some very valid points, the extra pressure placed on Pullin was very much unwarranted.
As a two time FIS World Cup Champion, Pullin has proved he is capable of beating the Olympic field. It does make sense that he receives a larger percentage of Olympic funding to better his chances for a medal. I’m sure even Belle Brockoff would agree with that much.
The real issue though is the gap in the allocated amount of the budget that is spent on Pullin in comparison.
Figures currently circulating suggest Pullin has received close to $250K in funding per annum in the four years before Sochi, while Brockoff has received just $10K a year. Brockoff finished the Women’s boarder cross event in eighth place, the highest placed Australian boarder cross athlete.
Further reports of coaches restricting second-tier athletes access to training facilities and support staff are disturbing to hear.
Giving preferential treatment and focus on riders with a higher ranking does little for the future medal prospects of the sport. These attitudes have long been ingrained in the coaching structure of the Australian team and really do need to change.
There is no real team unity for Australia’s snowboard athletes at these games and sadly they are caught up in the middle of it all, when they should be focusing on celebrating their achievements. T
here is a clear division and split between the fully funded athletes and the members of team outcast. This was clearly evident in an interview with boarder cross athlete Jarryd Hughes. When asked what he had learnt from fellow teammate Alex Pullin, Jarryd replied “No Comment.”
Like most caring parents would do, Jarryd’s father was quick to issue a press release the next day to calm the fire, so as to not affect his son’s future in the sport.
But the truth had been revealed, the division was there for all to see and the media found out the real motivation for Jarryd to perform well at these games.
As long as there has been Olympic funding for Australian snowboarders there has been disgruntled athletes. Ben Mates, the highest placed Australian male snowboarder in halfpipe at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, got himself there with little to no Olympic funding.
Having been a part of the funded 2006 team at Torino, Mates was officially dropped from all team funding, as attention shifted to the younger more exciting prospect of Nate Johnstone.
In the lead up to the Vancouver Games, Johnstone broke his ankle in a training mishap. Ben Mates rode strongly, like a man on a mission securing 10th place in the final. All of his own accord. The Australian Olympic PR team was very controlling of what Ben said to the press afterwards.
The public is only hearing about these qualms now, as finally the media is lending snowboarding an ear. For the other three years between Olympics, the media wants nothing to do with winter athletes.
Team outcast has made the most of the media spotlight to bring about change to their sport and what better spokesperson for your cause than the highly profiled Torah Bright.
As she told a press conference at the start of the games: “I would also love to see the development of the younger generations coming up. I am not going to be around for too many more years to come and team outcast is about making sure not just the top ones are taken care of but everyone else coming up too is taken care of.”
Boarder cross is not like the other snowboard disciplines of halfpipe and slopestyle. One’s own talent doesn’t necessarily determine one’s end result.
Whereas a rider can tell if they have the tricks in their run to make the finals in the other judged disciplines, in boarder cross it really is a game of survival.
You may be the strongest rider in the field, but when six of you are trying to squeeze around a berm wide enough for only two, well, it’s just simple mathematics really. Accidental contact between riders often occurs and the sport has had more than its fair share of Steven Bradbury moments.
Alex Pullin was the first rider to be eliminated, making it as far as the first quarter-final. On a tight corner Pullin caught an end in the soggy snow and went down, bringing his campaign to an end.
Had the pressure got to Pullin or was the mistake due to the conditions? Pullin was disappointed with his result and tried to explain the difficulty of the conditions for the viewers at home.
Teenage sensation Jarryd Hughes was the next to bow out in quarter-final three, getting caught up in a three-way collision with some of the other riders.
Hughes was looking confident and strong in all of his races and at only 18 years of age is a definite prospect for the future ahead. Interviewed afterwards he explained that was just how it goes in boarder cross, a message that was reiterated by most of the field.
Former ironman-cum-boarder cross rider, Cam Bolton was the most successful Australian male in the field. Having trained alongside and given the same access as Pullin, Bolton more than proved he had the courage and resolve to match it with the rest of the field.
Out in front is often the safest place to be in boarder cross and Bolton was nailing his starts. Having progressed through to the semifinal Bolton was in second place close on the tail of the race leader when the two collided mid way through the race. Bolton slammed heavily, breaking his wrist in the process.
With only the top three advancing to the final from each semi, Bolton was relegated to the consolation final. Despite having just broken his wrist, he continued on with the pain, getting his wrist taped up just seconds before the race resumed.
The broken wrist hampered Bolton’s efforts to get out of the gates quickly and unlike his other previous races, he found himself in the middle of the pack. Around a mid way corner in the track, Bolton was again taken out by another rider. This time he came down hard on his face and almost knocked himself out.
Bruised, bloodied and battered, Bolton was all smiles when it came time to be interviewed. Officially finishing in 11th place, Bolton was happy with his first Olympic performance and had no ill word to speak of his competitors. “That’s just how it goes in boarder cross” he reiterated.
Perhaps team Australia needs to take this commonly heard line into consideration when it comes to designating the split in funding next time around. There are no definites in boarder cross.
Ryan Willmott is a former editor of Australian/NZ Snowboarder magazine with over 10 years of experience covering winter sport events.