With ski and snowboard slopestyle events set to make their Olympic debut at Sochi 2014, we caught up with one of GB’s brightest young prospects in the sport, Aimee Fuller. The 22-year-old first started snowboarding on the dry slopes near her home in Bromley and is now training hard to make her first Winter Olympic Games.
How is your preparation for Sochi going so far?
It’s going well, I’m getting pretty excited now. We’re off to Austria next week so we’ve got a few things lined up for when we’re there. My focus is all on learning at the moment; I want to learn all of the tricks and just keep practising.
What have you been doing to prepare?
It’s been a summer of fitness, really. Working with a personal trainer to try and keep my fitness levels up and after I got back from New Zealand, I did a bit of cycling. Now though it’s primarily about getting enough snow time so I’m confident working through the tricks. I just want to get out there on the snow and practise the tricks until they become second nature to me. They need to become a muscle memory so I’ll be doing a lot of repetition.
You recently tried out track cycling, what was it like using British Cycling’s facilities in Manchester?
We had a three day stint in Manchester doing some media training, some talks and updates on drug testing and we got to spend some time with British Cycling and have a go in the Velodrome. I was so excited to meet Jason Kenny, Laura Trott and the rest of the team. It was really fun to do something different and remind myself what it feels like to be a beginner once again.
How would you describe snowboarding to a first time viewer?
It’s exciting to watch, trendy, fast-paced and technical. Anything can happen and Sochi will be the best display of slopestyle snowboarding to date.
Finally, what impact has National Lottery funding had on your career?
Lottery Funding has been a huge help in my career. To be honest, it came as a total surprise when I first found out I was going to be funded and it took away a lot of worries about how I’d be able to compete in certain events and get myself to certain coaching days and meets. It’s made everything less stressful and enables us all to be the best we can be.
For more information about the British Ski & Snowboard Team, visit the British Ski & Snowboard website.
You can follow Aimee’s progress on the #RoadtoSochi through the @TeamBSS Twitter page, and on Aimee's own Twitter profile @aimee_fuller