Mackenzie’s Evan Bichon is reflecting on his first taste of Olympic competition after finishing 17 out of 32 competitors in the men’s snowboard cross event.
In an interview, Bichon said heading to Italy for a once-in-a-lifetime experience made it all worth, especially after growing up in rural B.C.
“To be able to do what you love and travel the world has been unbelievable. I think I have been too 24 or 25 different countries in my life now and when I moved from Mackenzie to Prince George I didn’t know how to use a cross-walk with a button because we didn’t have any of those.”
He added the end result in Milano-Cortina gives him something bigger to strive for in future years.
“I think it is a good bench mark to finish 17th here. Everybody who is here competing with me at the Olympics is the top of every country who competes on the World Cup Tour with me – all of the competitions I will be doing for the rest of this season and into the future I am competing against the best of the best and I got a good result moving forward.”
Bichon, who attended high school in Prince George joked it didn’t take long for him to realize he’s now an Olympian.
“The biggest realization was the opening ceremony. When we got walk through that awesome ring and my opening ceremonies had both flag bearers so it was really special to be apart and that was my we are here moment.”
“When I was younger, I was just snowboarding for fun and I didn’t even know that snowboard cross was an Olympic sport. I think my realization that maybe I could go to the Olympics for this was when I qualified for the Canada Games back in 2015 and then that really became a goal for me after I won the Canada Games – it’s been a ten-year journey to get to the Olympics.”
It didn’t hurt that the competition was top-notch and the food was good too.
“They are pumping out pizzas for us and they are perfect Italian pizzas so I am a big fan of that and I definitely had good meals here so I have been enjoying the food. We have a big food hall and that is where we do a lot of our mingling. I will meet people from different countries, different athletes and there staff at the meal hall, it’s a good place for a conversation,” added Bichon.
Bichon departs Italy today (Wednesday) and will focus on his next competition in Turkey at the end of the month.
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