AN 18-YEAR-OLD apprentice bricklayer from Monk Bretton is competing with some of the best young snowboarders on the continent this week at the European Youth Winter Olympics in Finland.
Koby Cook has been snowboarding since the age of five, having been introduced to it by his father, and is hoping to compete in the Winter Olympics in the future.
He is one of the best young snowboarders in the country and has been selected for Team GB for the first time at the multi-sport event in which he will compete in the ‘big air’ and ‘slopestyle.’
He told the Chronicle: “It’s great to be here. It’s a good standard and the course is really good.
“I am just glad to experience it all and I’m not aiming for anything in particular.
“I just want to have a good time and see what it’s all about because I’ve never done anything like this before.
“It’s a good atmosphere. Everyone is nice and welcoming.
“I am sharing a room with two alpine skiers so it’s good to mix with people from another discipline.”
Koby enjoyed watching the recent Winter Olympics in China and hopes to get to that level himself in the future.
“I would like to get in the main GB team within a few years then start to compete in World Cups and X Games then hopefully the Olympics one day.
“I am looking at either the next Winter Olympics or the one after.
“I watched the last one a few weeks ago. Some of the tricks people are doing now is amazing.
“I want to be as good as them one day.”
Koby has spent the first three months of the year snowboarding in Switzerland then, during the summer, he works for his father as a labourer.
He is also an apprentice bricklayer at Barnsley College.
“I am lucky that my dad lets me have time off through the winter to snowboard.
“It’s quite hard work doing bricklaying but it’s worth it to get all the time off to do my sport.”
