Native snowboarders set sights on Olympics: Aboriginal sports program introduces young athletes to competition on the hills
the Globe and Mail, April 8, 2006

Thirty young members of the Westbank First Nation will strap on snowboards and hit the slopes at the Big White Ski Resort near Kelowna this weekend, hoping to make the cut for the First Nations Snowboard Team.

For these natives in their teens and 20s, it's an opportunity to join the country's only aboriginal snowboarding team, and maybe, just maybe, a chance to stand on the podium at the 2010 Winter Olympics.

Naomi Walser, a sports co-ordinator for aboriginal youth in Vancouver, joined the team in November.

"The first time I was up on the mountain with the team, it was amazing," said the 29-year-old, who grew up on an Ojibwa reserve in Northern Ontario. "Not only was I getting trained to snowboard, but everyone was aboriginal. It was an indescribable feeling."

The First Nations Snowboard Team was formed in 2004 by Aaron Marchant, 28, a member of the Squamish Nation, with two ambitious goals in mind. He wanted to create the conditions for an aboriginal to win an Olympic medal in snowboarding and improve the lives of native youth on the team.

Aboriginal teams exist for other Canadian sports, such as hockey and soccer, but this is the first snowboarding team. The group is sanctioned by the Canadian Snowboard Federation, which is developing talent for the 2010 Winter Olympics, which will be held in Whistler and Vancouver.

Mr. Marchant, a communications officer for the Squamish Nation, got the idea for the team in 2002, when he was snowboarding on Grouse Mountain in Vancouver. He noticed a group of aboriginal boarders who had no helmets. Their boards were chipped and their boots were too small.

"They were talented but they didn't have the proper equipment and they didn't know anything about competing," he said. "I thought it would be a good idea to put them into a structured training program."

In 2004, the provincial government contributed $3-million to the Aboriginal Youth Sport Legacy Fund, as part of an earlier agreement with the Squamish and Lil'wat nations to spread the benefits from the Olympics. The fund gave the FNST $34,000 last year and $208,000 this year, which goes toward equipment, competition costs and two staff members.

The team sends athletes to compete in regional and national snowboarding competitions. Last weekend, two members took part in a Canadian Snowboard Federation event in Quebec and qualified to go to the national finals for boarder cross, a sport where four snowboarders race against each other down a mountain, navigating turns, bumps and jumps.

The FNST has 22 young athletes in the Vancouver area, and the Westbank group will add eight more. Team members get together several times a month to train with a coach at the Vancouver-area Cypress Mountain or Whistler-Blackcomb. They are provided with equipment that includes black jackets with the team logo -- a native-style design of a snowboarder sailing through the air.

Team members have to sign athlete agreements promising to attend 90 per cent of the training sessions and to stay away from drugs and alcohol at all times. Young athletes attending school must maintain a C+ average. If they don't follow the rules, they have to return their gear and their free passes to Whistler-Blackcomb, Cypress and Grouse mountains.

Virginia Johnston, a 22-year-old team member from Paradise Valley, north of Squamish, agrees with the policy against drugs and alcohol.

"In the snowboard scene, there's a lot of parties and drinking," she said. "There's also lots of drug and alcohol abuse on reserves, so I think it's good that we're known as a drug- and alcohol-free team. We're respected for it."

Ms. Johnston has been working as a snowboard instructor at Whistler-Blackcomb for several years, but hadn't considered competing before she joined the team. Now she has participated in several boarder cross competitions and dreams of making it to the 2010 Olympics.

Though the snowboarding season is wrapping up, the young athletes will continue training through the summer, practising their moves on trampolines and learning about nutrition and sports psychology.

Mr. Marchant and his team realize that they are a small group with limited experience, and that their chances of making it to the 2010 Games are slim.

But Ms. Johnston says the snowboarding program is still valuable. "Even if we don't make it, we're teaching the younger generations, and we're opening more doors for first nations in sports."

The team members earn certification from the Canadian Association of Snowboard Instructors, and are paid to teach native children as young as five years old how to snowboard. Forty-four children are taking lessons.

Mr. Marchant has more goals for the FNST: he wants to secure corporate sponsorships and expand the program across the country. One place he's considering is Sun Peaks Resort near Kamloops, the site of numerous heated protests by native groups.

"We've been in talks with one of the first nations groups near Sun Peaks and we hope to develop a program within the next year or two," he said. "We won't interfere with any land-claims negotiations. We just want to get the youth out on the mountain, having fun."