SNOWBOARD CROSS: When the Winter Olympics kick off next year, hundreds of thousands of Aussies will take a break from the beach to watch the snowboard cross, with home-grown hero Alex ‘Chumpy’ Pullin favoured to take gold in the event.

Right alongside him will be his teammate and top snowboarder in his own right – Cam Bolton.

Rather than seeing himself as riding in Pullin’s shadow, Bolton is relishing the advantages of being alongside the number one in the world.

“Chumpy’s been a huge help to me,” he said. “I’m in a unique position where I am able to train with the best athlete in the world. It’s a lot of fun - I get to see where the bar is at and chase it.”

And chase it he has. Bolton has gone from obscurity to being a finals contender with just two years on the World Cup circuit. In March this year, he grabbed his first top-ten finish, something the 22-year-old plans to continue.

“I won’t be thinking about Olympic qualification,” Bolton said of the World Cup season which got underway last week. “I will be focusing on my results. I want to be making finals, I want to be top-six.”

More finals berths seem realistic for the young snowboarder who hails from Sorrento on the Victorian coast.

Despite the lack of good snow throughout the Australian winter, he had a strong season with a camp in New Zealand and a win at the Australia New Zealand Cup in Mt Hotham.

Since the end of the domestic season, Bolton has been working hard in the gym to perfect the three principles of snowboard cross fitness – strength, power and speed.

“Training has been going really well. I have no injuries – no niggles. I’ve just been able to train really well and it’s full steam ahead to the Olympics.

“I’m faster, bigger and stronger than ever before. That has given me the confidence I need heading into the next season. I’m ready.”

Bolton, Pullin and the rest of the Australian team have been in camp in Austria for the past few weeks, fine tuning their preparations ahead of the Olympic Games.

A crucial part of the preparation is having the right board and wax for the conditions. Bolton and his teammates spent considerable time last year board testing in various snow conditions so they could be assured that regardless of the snow in Sochi, they would be prepared.

“When we got to Sochi for the World Cup this year, we found that the snow there was really similar to what we have back in Australia. It felt like we had a home-ground advantage!”

Board testing and gym work are all important, but when it comes to the crunch, it’s the athlete’s ability to get it right on the course, on the day, that counts.

Bolton puts much of that down to experience, something he is getting more and more of as the Games edge closer.

“Spending time on the course is really important,” he said. “And really what is crucial is the ability to make split-second decisions. That’s where the experience really comes into it and it can make all the difference.”

When that difference is between an on-course collision or a spot in the final, those decisions are critical and ultimately what makes the sport of boardercross so technical and exciting to watch.

One thing to be sure of, there is more than one Aussie athlete to keep an eye on in the men’s boardercross when the Games get underway next February.