features

Youngsters Enliven Winter Sports Attractions

 

Feb 01, 2010 / 02:15:45 PM


Britteny Cox. Image:: Olympics.com.au

Words:: Don St Pierre

Mountainwatch takes a look at the new winter Olympic youth culture rounding out the Aussie line up for Vancouver.

With 15 year olds such as Scotty James in half pipe snowboarding and Britteny Cox in mogul skiing now named to the Aussie Team, could promoting young athletes so early be a positive way for Australia to build winter sports profile? Could these teenager's successes act as a lure for other young snow sport athletes, propping up numbers and building more depth at the Interschool level?

Australia's last female Olympic moguls representative, Manuela Berchtold, consistently earned top 20 places in World Cup competition and yet had to fight an Australian Olympic Committee reluctant to send an athlete with little medal prospects for her spot in the 2006 Torino Olympic Team.

Now 15 year old Cox, with a career best 29th World Cup finish and only two World Cup experiences, will be donning the Australian Uniform for the Vancouver 2010 Games. So what has changed?

Strict guidelines are not good for the sport

In the past much stricter Australian qualification guidelines prohibited anyone with less than stellar results to qualify for the Australian Winter Olympic Team. Stricter guidelines might protect integrity but can potentially jeopardise future results. The lack of opportunity discourages athletes and parents from pursuing winter sports as they foresee little chance of Olympic selection. With no hope of an Olympic berth parents may be less likely to foot the costs incurred from an international snow sports career. Young athletes may be discouraged by such stringent qualification policies and the probability their endeavours will not be rewarded by Olympic recognition.


Scotty James. Image:: McBride

Promoting younger athletes has a positive effect

The AOC's willingness to send Cox and James shows a positive step, but perhaps it has been building behind the scenes. Ski and Snowboard Australia had earmarked James as a possible 2010 Olympic team member two years ago and encouraged him to strive to meet the criteria for Olympic selection. His efforts have now paid off and already his achievement has become bigger than the 52kg teen himself.

Whatever the reason for this new more lenient AOC attitude and whatever the results in Vancouver, these little Aussie P platers will come away from the Games with the experience and knowledge of what it takes to win at Olympic level for 2014. Other young athletes may now see fresh new hope that they too can be part of something special if they commit their hearts and minds knowing the Olympics are not a closed door arena.

Read Scotty's profile
Read the latest Australian Olympic Team list

More about mogul skiing and half pipe

tags: olympic, feature, australian, team, selection, moguls, freestyle, skiing, snowboarding, half, pipe, scott, james, britteny, cox, vancouver, features