My name is Mathieu Avent, I am a 19 year old British Skicross racer from Chamonix.
I was born here in Chamonix, France on the 8th January 1999. I was born British as both of my parent are from the UK, but When I turned 14 I was able to get my French citizenship. So now I have both British and French nationalities.
When I was 5 I joined the Les Houches ski club, since then I have been racing in Alpine skiing in national and international events. Until 2016 I was competing for France but When I was dropped from the team due to an injury I decided to continue my dream and signed up for GB. At the beginning of this summer, I decided to switch over to Skicross and try out for the GB Europa Cup team.
Having just finished my first Skicross races with two top 10’s and a 16th in the Junior World Championships scoring over 50 FIS points, the head coach ( Guillaume Nantermod ) of the GB Skicross team should be conforming my place on the Europa Cup team this October. This winter I am planning on doing the full Europa Cup programme in Skicross.
My coach,family and Myself all think that I have a high chance of doing very well in this new Journey of mine, hopefully ending the 2022 year with an Olympic medal.
Throughout most of my school years I was part a of sport class. This class let us work in the morning and ski/physical prep in the afternoon depending on the season. But when I was dropped from the french team, I was also dropped from the class. So as a result, if I wanted to continue my sport at the highest level I had to abandon school education. I stopped school at the age of 17.
My favorite/inspirationnal athlete has to be Ken Roczen, A young German Motocross/Supercross athlete. I look up to him as he manages to combine hard work and fun. He clearly loves what he does and I want to feel the same when I reach the peak of my sport.
Aswell as skiing I do have a couple other hobbies.
When ever I can, during the off season I love to take my dirtbike out and ride around the beautiful mountains on my doorstep.
I also love to go out on my road bicycle, aswell as beeing perfect physical prep for skiing it is great fun.
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