With less than 200 days to go to the Opening Ceremony in PyeongChang, many of Australia’s winter athletes are preparing on home snow.  

Snowboard Cross rider Cam Bolton, who has one Olympics under his belt - finishing 11th in Sochi in 2014, is one such athlete who is motivated to return for a second Olympics in PyeongChang fitter and healthier.  

Making it back to full strength after a broken back, shoulder and wrist between Sochi and now spells out the extreme risk many winter athletes face and take in their stride.

“I’m happy to have a year of injury free training in the lead up to the Olympics,” Bolton said at the conclusion of the World Championships in March.

The off-season at home for Bolton since the world titles has required intense strength and conditioning in Melbourne or near his home base on the Mornington Peninsula, which also afforded his love of surfing, which he happily calls ‘cross training’.   

 “This is the first time since the 2014/15 season that I’ve been healthy and I’m really motivated,” Bolton said.
Despite not competing at the PyeongChang test event in March 2016, he has checked out the venue.

“PyeongChang looks like a great course. It’s going to flow and be fast,” is Bolton’s assessment.

“I expect it to be windy. There’s wind turbines near the course for good reason and it can be incredibly gusty from any direction.”

Snowboard Cross might look like four guys lining up against each other at the start gate before racing to the finish line in the quest to place in the top two to advance to the ultimate final and medal round, but there’s more to this sport than meets the casual eye.

The Uiyaji Wind Village is located on the highlands of PyeongChang, attracting tourists for cheese and ice cream making and to view the ‘sight of wind-mills standing high above the frozen plain’.

How just one weather factor, such as wind, can affect racing on any given day poses a significant challenge for the PyeongChang course.

“The wind can change every twenty seconds, which makes it hard to plan for everyone. There will be an element of luck and qualifying could be all over the place.”

 “There is an incredible difference between a headwind, or a possible tailwind and that can play with your mind,” Bolton said.

“Hitting big is about aerodynamics. If you go high, you lose speed. Staying low - weight helps if you have a headwind and the ability to generate speed through transitions.”

An exciting Snowboard Cross event next February is on the cards. In the meantime, it’s training on the Aussie snowfields at Mt Hotham for our Olympic SBX team until the first World Cup in Argentina gets underway in early September.

And spare a thought for winter athletes like Bolton who lug close to 100 kilos of baggage with up to eight snowboards.

“It’s a small price to pay for doing what we love.”

He’s only nineteen years old, but Jindabyne snowboarder Adam Lambert came out all guns blazing last season with a breakthrough that landed him with an overall World Cup Snowboard Cross ranking of 22nd.

Not bad considering his first World Cup was not until February this year.

Certainly, he was born to ride and  began snowboarding when he was 18-months old. It  helps that his parents own and operate a snowboard shop in Jindabyne, NSW.   

His ‘sudden’ rise to the elite end of Snowboard Cross doesn’t feel that quick to Lambert.

“The season before last I didn’t do the best that I could,” he said. “I choked and could have done much better – because I kept making stupid mistakes.”

“That season (2016/17) I learned to be resilient, then it all flowed.”

Lambert didn’t race in the first four World Cups in the 2017/18 season because he was yet to qualify at that level but after three podiums in the Europa Cup series, he was on his way.

“I got that,” Lambert remarked on his overall Europa Cup Snowboard Cross title after impressive wins in three out of five Europa Cups.

On his first World Cup appearance in February this year at Feldberg, Lambert is disparaging.

“On the first day (in Feldberg), I did terrible – 52nd. And to choke like that at my first World Cup was pretty rough.”
“I came back the next day though, qualified and won through to the second final (placing 7th).”

He went on to his second World Cup in La Molina Spain to finish overall sixth and onto his first World Championships, again in Spain, with another sixth.

As probably the shortest Snowboard Cross rider on the circuit at 170cm (5’7”), Lambert is nicknamed ‘nugget’.

“I’m called ‘nugget’ because I’m short and powerful,” he laughed. “Being shorter than the other guys is an advantage and a disadvantage.”

The advantage is his canny ability to find the gaps and then there’s the level of power required to excel in the rollers.

“When I’m riding rollers that are deep I probably have to work fifty percent harder. The most important part of the roller is the entry because if you mistime it, you’re in trouble.”

For the kid with a bullet who was into slopestyle until he was 15-years-old, Snowboard Cross didn’t enter his world until a few years ago.

“I had to give up Slopestyle when I was fifteen because I had a knee meniscus tear and for almost five months, I had nothing to else to do but sit on the couch. That time helped me in the end because I had previously enjoyed racing and did my first boardercross program when I was seventeen.”

Lambert’s first overseas event came in the 2014/15 season and just two seasons on, he thinks his chances to make the PyeongChang Olympic Winter Games team as the third highest ranked Australian are “pretty good right now” and the rookie is “super proud”.

“The possibilities of making the Olympics sunk in three weeks after the World Championships (in Spain, March 2017) and I couldn’t sleep. I was so excited.”

The young gun lists Alex “Chumpy” Pullin and Cam Bolton as his heroes in the sport since he first met them three years ago.

“When I was fifteen I did my first FIS event and Futures Camp at Hotham, which Chumpy and Cam ran. They’re the top guys.”  

His ultimate dream is to “win the Olympics. What else is there?” he said.

“I have put expectations on myself but I’m taking it one step at a time.”

International racing at the highest level has taught Lambert a thing or two. “You make friends pretty quickly when you win and people want to talk to you.”

Lambert has been training on home snow in NSW before his opening race of the season at Mt Hotham in August and then onto Argentina for the first-ever World Cup in Argentina in September.

To find out more about Adam Lambert, visit his OWIA Athlete Profile page at http://www.owia.org/adam-lambert.html

By Belinda Noonan OWIA