Bunschoten ready to give her best on home snow

After winning her first World Cup in Landgraaf last season, the Dutch snowboarder aims at repeating that result once again. 02 Nov 2016

The Netherlands' Bibian Mentel-Spee secured her second World Cup win in Aspen and was joined on the podium by teammate Lisa Bunschoten and the USA’s Heidi Jo Duce.

ⒸUS Paralympics

By Giuseppe Di Florio and the IPC

“I’m working as hard as I can to get stronger, fitter and better so that I hopefully can qualify for the Games and ride the best I ever did.”

The Netherlands’ Lisa Bunschoten is looking forward to getting the Para snowboard season underway on her home snow in Landgraaf from 16-18 November.

The indoor slopes of SnowWorld are where the 20-year-old claimed her first World Cup victory, in 2015. That started off an excellent season in which Bunschoten won the women’s banked slalom SB-LL2 World Cup. Landgraaf will host a Europa Cup on 16 November and then two World Cup races on 17 and 18 November, both in banked slalom.

After spending most of the summer at the national training centre, Bunschoten has also been on the snow. Besides that she went to the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games to enjoy the sport and some sightseeing.

She is now working hard to show the best of herself with the season opener just weeks away.

“It’s the first race of the season, so I’ll look where I’m at, but I really hope that I can ride the best race and get on the podium,” Bunschoten said. “My ultimate dream is to win a gold medal. It is pretty special to have the first race of the season here in the Netherlands. I like the fact that my family can be there and that they can see what I’m training for”.

The final preparations saw Bunschoten leave for the Alps for two weeks as well as working on strength and conditioning. She believes this will help her reach her goals in a season which will feature the 2017 World Para Snowboard Championships in Big White, Canada.

“I think I can improve from last season because I did a lot of physical training this summer and I think I’m way stronger than before, so hopefully I’ll see this back on snow,” the women’s snowboard-cross SB-LL2 Worlds bronze medallist said.

There is another reason why the Dutch rider is putting so much passion and effort into what she is doing – this is the final season before the Pyeongchang 2018 Paralympic Winter Games.

“I’m working as hard as I can to get stronger, fitter and better so that I hopefully can qualify for the Games and ride the best I ever did,” Bunschoten concluded.