Courtesy: Evan Bichon/Canada Snowboard Team

By Ethan Ready

Evan Bichon

Here for the Ride: Bichon embracing global experiences through snowboard cross

Jan 15, 2021 | 5:15 PM

PRINCE GEORGE – Ever since the 2015 Canada Winter Games, the career of Prince George’s Evan Bichon has been on a continuous upward trend.

He finished first that year and has since put four junior world championships and 14 world cups under his belt, and now finds himself in his third year with the Canadian Development Team, being classified as a Canadian NextGen athlete.

“Before snowboard cross, I had never travelled out of the country,” explained Bichon in a video call from his cabin at the Crosspark Reiteralm. “I have been to around 20 countries now since starting this sport. Without that, I never would have travelled. I’m really thankful that I have that experience.”

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The 22-year-old hopes to crack the Canadian National Team by the end of this year, aiming to have enough events this year to reflect his earning of a spot on that team.

“First thing’s first, I’m going to try to qualify for world championships this year,” expressed Bichon. “That event is to be determined but my current races are going to qualifications for that, as well as potential qualifications for Beijing in 2022. Ever since the 2018 Olympics, that has been what my sight has been set on is competing in the 2022 Olympics in Beijing.”

The whole experience of being able to travel has led Bichon down a path of educating himself on the world’s diversity and cultures.

“One of the really cool parts of that, especially being in a sport that competes against other countries, I get to see how all of those countries come together in one spot and interact with each other,” the Prince George athlete stated. “Thankfully everyone in my sport is super nice and we all get along great, so it’s usually an awesome atmosphere. I have friends all over the world now so it’s great.”

Bichon is finishing up his training in the training camp bubble in Austria before embarking for yet another bubble environment in Italy (pending a negative COVID-19 test) next week before starting a double event, with the possibility of coming back home to Canada later this month where he will enter the mandatory quarantine period.