By NICK HIGGINSON
Local darling and Hotham Terrian Parks manager Briony Johnson flew the flag for Hotham at the inaugural Freeride World Championships this past winter in Ordino Arcalis, on a day that bucked tradition and saw Andorra sporting some of the best conditions across the entire alps.
Johnson finished fifth in a field studded with Freeride World Tour athletes, throwing down on a daunting face and showing the world she was not there to make up the numbers.
Breaking through and delivering this performance on the biggest stage was a principal goal for the season, a reward for the significant sacrifice it takes to self-fund a northern competition winter.
“It was incredible, exhilarating, terrifying all at once,” she said.
“Everything was just bigger...bigger face, bigger risk, bigger stakes, bigger rewards.
“The scale of that venue, what we saw when we looked down was just insane.
“I can’t even properly explain what it felt like standing in that start gate.
“I write goals down every season, and top five at World Championships was the first one on my list, so it felt like a great achievement to knock that one over.”
Briony has competed on the Challenger Tour the past few seasons, a roaming winter-long competition which grants the winner a ticket onto the Freeride World Tour.
Back home, she spends the winter working her tail off building and maintaining Hotham’s terrain parks.
I asked Briony how she manages balancing this life as both a full-time employee and an athlete across the northern winter.
“I focus on work, saving and hustling for five to six months across the Australian winter,” Briony said.
“For the remaining months leading up to and moving into the northern winter my focus shifts to competing, doing everything I have to do mentally and physically to be prepared for the competition circuit.
“I have to commit my whole year basically to these three to four months of competing.
“Without a big work winter, I can’t go, and without significant physical and mental preparation, I wouldn’t be able to compete at that level.
“It’s a sacrifice, I don’t see myself as ‘talented’, I have to work for it and I choose to make that sacrifice.”
The work and sacrifice that goes in to competing on this level is difficult to express.
Travelling across Europe for competitions that can be cancelled, finding a home base for four months where either balance work and competition, or live a frugal life in your months leading up and piece it together off savings.
Short-term leases, crashing on couches, 12-hour van journeys wincing each time you go past another toll booth.
Many hours spent in the gym back home, or learning the language to integrate into the community.
All of it precludes taking a full-time job and having that stability while chasing a dream.
This is not for the faint hearted.
Briony, on the back of her most successful competition winter yet is cognizant of the cost.
“I work extremely hard to chase this dream, spending a lot of time away from my family and my partner,” she said.
“The sacrifice does weigh heavily on me.
“That being said, I love competing and the experiences I’ve gained are so worth it.”
Our athletes breaking the door down internationally are carrying the next generation on their backs through it.
While the reality for now is athletes largely self-funding this dream, Freeride is on the path to becoming an Olympic discipline in the French Alps in 2030.
We have world class teenagers in junior competitions and just stepping into the senior competitions who will continue carry the sport forward from here.
“It’s already very popular and widely known internationally as a global sport, increasing numbers across disciplines, and it’s beginning to find it’s way here,” Briony said.
“Kids will want to explore Freeride as the Olympic pathway opens, everybody I think dreams of representing their country at the highest level.”
Briony is back at Hotham this year, where she will spend countless hours on the shovel building and shaping our terrain parks, as well as paving the way for a future generation of young athletes.
Buy her a beer, if you can get her out of the gym.
