Meet Courtney Snowball – Year 11 student and XCO World Number 23
Have you received the 2017 edition of Factis magazine? You may recall reading an interview with Year 11 student Courtney Snowball, who earlier this year achieved a personal best XCO ranking of 23 in the world! Enjoy the full interview with Courtney below.
Cross-Country Olympic (XCO) is not your standard mountain bike riding. It is a challenging hour and a half of racing, where competitors navigate tough terrain and technical features, all the while riding up and down hills. We sat down with Year 11 student Courtney Snowball, who earlier this year reached a PB ranking of XCO World Number 23, to learn more about this emerging extreme sport.
What is XCO?
So XCO is not what you would expect. When people think of mountain biking they think of downhill riding, big rocks and only going in the one direction. XCO is an hour or an hour and a half of racing, it’s up and down, and there are lots of technical features and different terrain.
What are some of the technical features?
The most popular features would be a rock garden or a berm. A berm is a corner where the dirt is built up to carve in. And then a rock garden is a series of rocks placed everywhere that are all different levels and you’ve got to get over them.
So you could not grab a normal bike and ride XCO?
No, you could. That’s the other thing people think, their first impression is that you have to be this good to do it or have this equipment. Recreational riding can be mountain biking as well.
Are all XCO races the same distance?
In an XCO race you do a certain amount of loops and it can be anywhere from four to six kilometres, and then you’ve got other races that are still XCO but longer, they could be three-hour races where it’s a 12km course and you do as many loops are you can. A 50km race would be just one loop of a 50km course.
Do you get a chance to see the course before a race?
Yes, you do. We do a reccy where you go out for a loop or two and you session different parts of the course, normally we do this a day or two before the race. So you would pick your line, deciding what looks best for you, the fastest and smoothest. Practise things you’re not confident with, focusing where you need to go your hardest, or where you’ll need to take your time, also find passing opportunities.
Both your parents ride, do they go on reccys with you?
Yes, my mum and dad ride, so does my brother. So we go along with my coach. At Nationals our entire squad went out to do the reccy. We would all pick things we each need to work on and our coach would work with each of us.
What are the race meets like?
The atmosphere is really good – there is always heaps of things to do, the race village is always really great and I have so many friends in the sport, it’s great to see them at races.
What do your friends think of you competing in XCO?
My school friends understand that it’s hard but they think it’s pretty cool. When I told them I was going to compete for Australia, they were like Courtney that’s amazing! Some of them are into sport so they understand it’s pretty competitive.
What XCO achievements are you most proud of?
At the moment the one that sits on the top of the ladder is definitely being entered to go to the World Championships, so making the under 19s Australian team was probably the most exciting news I’ve ever got. I think my other achievement would be that I have a level 0 skills coaching accreditation, so I can teach the basics of mountain biking skills. I work with Warrandyte Mountain Bike Club, which my mum founded. So I work with them and run sessions. I can take about eight kids in a session, but my mum and I generally work together with another one of our friends who is part of the club. We get a really big group together and take them out.
Who do you look up to in the sport?
My parents are the ones who got me into the sport in the first place, so I definitely admire them. My mum is going to Andorra in Spain to compete in the World Masters.
So your parents still compete?
Yes! Both my mum and dad compete, but mum is going overseas, also wearing the green and gold – so that’s one thing I look up to her for. There are so many great riders in the sport and it would be too hard to choose.
How do you juggle training, racing and school? And how does the School help you?
I don’t participate in Interschool Sport on Wednesday afternoons, I go home and train. That gives me from 1pm onwards to train and then I have a solid two to three-hour block to do my homework, so that’s really great. Thursdays I have a spare in the afternoon so I go home and do the same. It’s not easy and I need to be really organised. This year I have established a routine and I’ve been really good with it, so I am happy with that.
What is your next goal in XCO?
In September when I compete World Championships I would definitely love to get anything in the top 20 or 30. It’s such a competitive field and I’ve never raced against any of the girls before as I’ve only ever been competing in Australia, so it will be a completely different ball game, but I am really looking forward to it. After that I would love to aim for the Commonwealth Games or even the Olympics, but we’ll see how I go.
If someone wanted to get into XCO how would they start?
All you need to do is have a bike and helmet and go out and ride. Lysterfield Park is a really great place to start. XCO is a sport for anyone, it’s great for girls too, however girls see it as a male sport because more males do it, but it really can be for anyone. All you have to do is get on your bike and pedal, and if you enjoy it you’ll get better and then maybe join a club and go from there.
