My name is Liam Kempton-Robshaw, I was born on the 13th of August 1996 in Liverpool – a place with no hills, no mountains and no snow, unless you count the ice build up in the freezer!

I first discovered snowboarding after buying and playing the game SSX on my Playstation; it made me want to give it a go in real life. I asked my mum for snowboarding lessons for Christmas and received 5 lessons at the nearest dry slope Ski Rossendale. By the end of my first lesson, I knew was hooked.

After my lessons, I practised at the slope for a few hours a night at least 3 times a week. By the time I finished my lessons my entire family was learning. It had become a family thing!

For the first 16 months, the thought of going to a mountain didn’t even cross my mind. Ski Rossendale was all I knew.

By the time I was 13, I was learning how to do tricks, and it wasn’t long before I entered my first competition and was getting reasonably placed in them. Then I had a couple of bad accidents in quick succession and I was put out of snowboarding for a whole year!

On returning to the sport, I decided that speed (rather than spinning) was for me, and I joined my sister on the main slope where we started racing against each other.

Soon after, Shaun Bellas became my coach and started working with me to improve my riding, technique and posture. During this time, my sister was spotted by a Team GB member, who suggested that she contact the GB coach to ask about trials for the British squad. As a result, the trials were booked for my sister and I in November 2014 in Hintertux, Austria.

After my trial, I was offered a place on the British Snowboard Cross Squad. I signed my contract a short while later and I have now finally fulfilled my dream of representing my country in a sport I love.

I continue to practice at least three times a week on the same slope where I took my first lessons (Ski Rossendale). When I’m not on the slope, I mountain bike, kayak and train to maintain my fitness.

I am hoping to be selected to ride in the XXIII 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea and all that is left for me to do now is raise the funds needed to continue my training.

This is where you come in.

As with all other members of the British Snowboard X Team, I am required to generate my own funding to be able to train and hopefully compete at the XXIII Olympic Winter Games in 2018, hosted by PyeongChang in South Korea.

This amounts to around £12,500 per year up to the event.

Of this, £5,500 is paid to GB SBX for coaching support from the British development coaches, assistance in finding local accommodation, team travel, program management support, access to strength and conditioning services including nutritional advice and also diagnostic and rehabilitation advice.

The other areas where funding will be spent are; travel to and from training camps and competition venues, accommodation costs, equipment, competition liability and medical insurances.

Any donations, regardless of the amount, are a great help in realising my potential for competing and representing Great Britain.

Please help fund my journey to the Olympics. Please help fund my journey to me dream.

Thanks for reading,

 

Liam