Sam Ward Joins British National Team

Author: Olivia Reed

Hey Sam, how’s 2018 been treating you?

Hey! 2018 has been treating me really well! I spent the summer working at Woodward Copper then I headed down to New Zealand for the FIS World Junior Championships!

You have some recent big news to share, right?

Yes! I have just been selected on to the British Ski and Snowboard’s GB Park and Pipe Team! Otherwise known as the British National Team.

How did that come about?

Although I have grown up in the US, my family on my Dad’s side are British. He was born in London and lived there as a kid. As his son, I have a British passport. This made me eligible for selection to the GB Park and Pipe Team. I got some pretty good results in Pipe and Slope in some NORAM’s and Rev Tour events in 2016-17 and so they asked me to join their development team. I spent the last season training with the Team and competed in NORAM’s, an Europa Cup event, and the Tignes World Cup Pipe event. At the end of the season, I competed in the BRITS - the British National Championships in Pipe, Slope and Big Air, gaining the podium in all three events alongside Olympians from Pyeongchang. In the past month or so, I represented GB at the FIS Junior World Championships in Pipe, Slope,and Big Air down in New Zealand. With some solid results there (in the middle of our summer!), I got qualified for World Cup level events in Big Air. I believe this might one of the reasons why I was promoted to the Full Team last week!

Where are you living/training this winter?

I will be splitting my time between Colorado and Europe this season. Early season, I will be in Colorado. The first World Cup Pipe event is at Copper in early December. In Europe, I will be training Slope and Big Air in Mottolino, Italy where GB Park and Pipe have training facilities, including an air bag and training Pipe in Laax, Switzerland. This season, there are multiple World Cup events in the US, including the World Championships in Park City in early February. So, I will have to go back and forth a bit to train and compete.

What can we look forward to from you this season?

You can see me traveling and competing on the World Cup Circuit and working hard to represent my sponsors, like Monster! I will also be releasing a few new videos as the season goes along.