A STUDENT from King William's College has been selected to represent Great Britain at the European Youth Olympic Winter Festival.
Jonny Chan, who is in year 11, will be taking part in the snowboard cross event where athletes race together down an incline in a race to reach the finish line first.
The European Youth Olympic Winter 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.
Jonny is one of two Britons who will be competing in snowboarding events at the festival. He has been on the British snowboarding team for two years and last year became the British Junior Champion.
He said: "This is my first time competing in an Olympic event and I am keen to learn about the values and traditions associated with it firsthand. 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."
Jonny started skiing at the age of three and could ski on most mountain runs by the time he was eight. He started snowboarding at the age of 10 and on a school trip aged 12 his talent was spotted by an instructor. In 2009 he was invited to train with fellow Manx snowboarder Zoe Gillings who has mentored Jonny ever since.
Zoe said: "Jonny is an extremely talented young snowboarder with huge potential ahead of him. Not only has Jonny progressed so much in the last two years as a competitive snowboarder but has done this at the same time as focusing 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."
This is Jonny's first winter competing in the international race circuit and his aim is to qualify for the Junior World Championships at the end of March. He has also set himself the goal of representing Great Britain at the next Winter Olympics.
Jonny's coach, David Hugill, said: "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."
King William's College has supported Jonny by giving him the opportunity to work remotely as he travels and he takes all of his books and a laptop with him so that his education doesn’t suffer.
This year's European Youth Olympic Winter Festival will run from February 13 to February 18 and is being held in Liberec in the Czech Republic.
