Vos chasing qualification for PyeongChang 2018

“It is fun because it is at my home country and my family and sponsors can see me in action, that is totally cool.”

Dutch double world champion Chris Vos returned to the snow on 16 November determined to improve on his 2015-16 season, where he won the overall men’s SB-LL1 banked slalom and snowboard-cross World Cup globes.

Before that, Vos had a pretty exciting summer visiting Brazil and the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games.

“It was my second experience of the Summer Games” he said. “I have been in London for the Games too. It is such an inspiration for me and when I was in London I got such a boost for Sochi that I was confident to get there. Now in Rio I did the same, I promoted my own country and my friends who are training at Papendal [The Netherlands’ Olympic training centre] every day and saw them in action. I train at Papendal too so I see them a lot and wanted to cheer for them.”

Despite not including any board sports, Vos still loves the summer Games and not just because of the weather.

“The main difference [with Winter Games] is that there is sun and no snow. But that is easy to see. Summer Games are always a little bigger than the Winter Games and it is as fun to watch the sports. The coolest to watch was the triathlon” he said.

The new season just kicked off in Landgraaf, the Netherlands, a track the 18-year-old snowboarder knows very well. So well in fact that he won both banked slalom World Cups.

“Landgraaf is a hard competition because the snow is really bad and strange. There is no sun and it is really cold, so to get focused there is hard. But it is fun because it is at my home country and my family and sponsors can see me in action, that is totally cool,” Vos said.

Before getting on the snow, Vos trained in the gym twice a day at Papendal. He has trained there for the last two years and is really happy with the progress he has made. Before heading to Landgraaf for the first Europa and World Cup of the season, he spent some weeks between Austria and Switzerland. There he found the best snow and worked with his coach Frank German, who is among the people who inspire him the most.

Vos hopes to continue to ride as well as he did last year and win gold again at the 2017 World Para Snowboard Championships in Big White, Canada. But most of all, he aims to qualify for the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Paralympic Games where he wants to win a medal.

“I’m stronger and better than last year, so I hope to improve myself” he said.

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The Big White 2017 World Para Snowboard Championships will feature around 80 of the world’s best Para snowboarders from 25 countries.