Jonny Chan, a student at King William’s College and IOM Sports Aid recipient, has been selected to represent Great Britain at the European Youth Olympic Winter Festival. He is one of two Britons who will be competing in the snowboarding events at the Festival. Jonny’s event is snowboard cross where athletes race together down a technical course laden with features. Jonny is in year eleven at the College and has been navigating the mountains for most of his life. He started skiing at the age of three and could ski on most runs by the time he was eight. Jonny first tried snowboarding at age ten because he thought the boots looked more comfortable and quickly became proficient. At age 12 he was talent spotted by an instructor while on a King William’s College school trip. In 2009, aged 13, he was invited to train with fellow Manx snowboarder Zoe Gillings who then introduced him to potential professional coaches. She has mentored Jonny ever since. Commenting on his abilities, Zoe said: "Johnny is an extremely talented young snowboarder with huge potential ahead of him. Not only has Johnny progressed so much in the last 2 years as a competitive snowboarder but has done this at the same time as focussing on his school work - this is a true testament to him. He is a credit to the Isle of Man and from what I have seen he has the full potential to reach the top in his sport." Last year Jonny became British Junior Champion. Since then, he has competed in the South America Cup and has now been on the British snowboarding team for two years. The Festival is a biennial event for athletes between the ages of 14 and 18 from the 48 member countries of the association of European Olympic Committees. The 2011 event will run from 13-18 February and are being held in Liberec in the Czech Republic. It features eight Olympic winter sports including snowboarding. Jonny commented on his selection: “This is my first time competing in an Olympic event and I am keen to learn about the values and traditions associated with it first-hand. I’m really excited to have been selected and I would like to thank my coach, the Institute of Sport and my parents for all of the support they have given to help me get to this point.” King William’s College supports Jonny by giving him the opportunity to work remotely as he travels and he takes all of his books and a laptop with him whenever he goes to compete so that his education doesn’t suffer. Jonny is usually into his studies as soon as he gets off the mountain each day. After a couple of seasons of basic training, this is Jonny’s first winter competing in the international race circuit; so his goal is to get some solid results and qualify for the Junior World Championships at the end of March. His long term target is to race on the World Cup circuit and he has even set himself the challenging goal of representing Great Britain at the next Winter Olympics, which are to be held in Sochi, Russia." Jonny’s coach, David Hugill, believes the young snowboarder’s goals are realistic. He commented: "Jonny is well ahead of most riders his age in the technical and tactical areas of the sport and he can only improve from here on in. Now that we are entering into the competitive portion of the season, I am extremely excited to see how Jonny performs and have full confidence in his ability to excel." - ends -