Bunschoten: My best and worst moments

After a great 2015-16 season where she won her first IPC Snowboard World Cup globe in the women’s banked slalom SB-LL2, Dutch rider Lisa Bunschoten is now training hard to repeat and possibly improve that result.

The 22-year-old is also focusing on Pyeongchang 2018 where she hopes to qualify and get on the podium. Bunschoten will get her season underway at home in Landgraaf, the traditional season opener, on 17 November. She will then be aiming for the 2017 World Para Snowboard Championships in Big White, Canada, from 1-7 February.

Here are the best and worst moments of her career so far, in her own words.

My best moments

1. Qualification for the Sochi 2014 Paralympic Winter Games

“This was a really special moment for me. I qualified during the first race of the season in Landgraaf, so I was in the Netherlands and my family was there as well. It was really nice to celebrate it with them and to be qualified at the start of the season so there was less pressure on me for the rest of the season”

2. Racing at Sochi 2014:

“It was just amazing as I never expected I could make it to the Paralympic Games. It was a beautiful experience and maybe I didn’t race as good as I wanted, but I enjoyed it really much!”

3. Winning the overall banked slalom World Cup globe last season

“For me it was the first time winning an overall globe and I was really happy that all my hard work payed off!”

My worst moment

“My last run in Sochi was the best one, until I fell in the last turn. It was a pretty hard crash, but luckily I was ok afterwards. Before that run I had the feeling that it was going to be a good one and that I could move to a better ranking”.

Over 100 Para athletes from 25 countries across the globe will compete in snowboard-cross and banked slalom in men’s and women’s SB-LL1, SB-LL2 and SB-UL classifications at Big White 2017.