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Olympics-Snowboard-Norway's Roisland has nothing to lose after injury and Beijing silver
OLYMPICS-2026-SNOWBOARD/ROISLAND (PIX):Olympics-Snowboard-Norway's Roisland has nothing to lose after injury and Beijing silver
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Roisland suffered big injury at Pyeongchang 2018
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Feels more confident in third Winter Games, less pressure
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Creativity key to his strategy and more fulfilling
By Giulia Segreti
LIVIGNO, Italy Feb 4 - Norway's snowboarder Mons Roisland is at his third Olympics with “nothing to lose”, carrying a sense of freedom he hopes will translate into giving his all in the most creative way possible.
At the Pyeongchang Games in 2018 he broke his chest bone and tore a shoulder ligament in what he described as the biggest crash of his life. Four years later in Beijing he won a silver medal for big air, the biggest podium of his career.
"I feel like I have nothing to prove now, and now I really just want to go for it and not play too much tactics and just give it everything," he told Reuters on Wednesday.
The 29-year-old said that in his discipline "it can go either way" given the experience of two extremely different Olympic outcomes. "I don’t feel like there’s more pressure. I feel like there’s more confidence and less pressure”.
Roisland is trying to treat the Games like any other event, adding that despite being at the sport's elite competition he goes through the same mindset and routines.
After South Korea and China, competing in Europe feels different from his previous Olympics, closer to home and in an area where he rode a lot and competed when he was aged 10 to 13.
"It’s really cool to be back,” he said.
AIMING FOR CREATIVITY
Creativity, he added, remained central to how he wanted to ride, preferring unique axes and inventive trick variations over the ever-increasing spin counts that now dominate the sport.
"It’s more fun, and for me it’s more fulfilling,” he said.
The Norwegian snowboarder is known for mixing technical precision with distinctive trick variations, a style that helped establish him among the strongest freestyle athletes.
Roisland said snowboarding continued to evolve, with every rider adding new variations and pushing in different directions, but he was worried this progression could make the sport less relatable to fans and younger generations due to its difficulty.
However, he welcomed judging trends that recognise style and originality, saying: "It is really cool to watch, and I think it’s more fun to do."
This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.
