Help Hannah Buy Race Boards for the Youth Olympics

My name is Hannah Turkington and I’m a 16 year old competitive snowboarder. This fundraiser supports my travel and training towards my Olympic dream. My immediate need is three new race boards which cost $4,200! These boards are desperately needed as my old ones are worn out from use. I am heading to Chile for an invitation-only training camp in mid-August and hope to be able to test out my new boards at that time.

When I was three, I watched Maëlle Ricker win gold in snowboard cross at the Vancouver Olympics. I pointed at Maëlle and told my parents, “That’s what I want to do!” Fast forward 13 years and I’m well on my way. We moved from North Vancouver to Whistler when I was seven and my snowboarding took off. I ‘boarded with the Whistler Valley Snowboard Club until I was invited to join the BC Provincial Snowboard Cross Team at age 12, its youngest athlete.

Of course, it hasn’t always been easy. After my first day of Grade 1, I came home from school and asked my mom, “Why am I dumb?” All the other kids knew how to read and I didn’t. By Grade 2, I was diagnosed with severe dyslexia. My reading was in the first percentile (meaning the worst), but my IQ was in the 87th. As we learned more about my condition, I saw the gift of dyslexia. While I struggled with reading, I excelled in other areas – especially athletics, with my ability to read a soccer field or a bike trail or a snowy mountain racetrack. Over the years I’ve learned ways to cope with dyslexia; I no longer see it as a disadvantage. My dyslexia drives me to succeed, and proves to me I can overcome any obstacle. It’s a big reason I’ll make it to the Olympics.

I immediately loved snowboard cross competitions at age 9. If you haven’t seen snowboard cross, it’s a downhill racetrack of snow, where four to six riders start together and race over rollers and jumps. It’s like roller derby on snow. The winner is whoever crosses the finish line first. I loved the speed of the race and the skill required to win. By 11, I won all the Provincial and Western Canadian competitions I entered, including those for older competitors. I raced in my first National competition at 12 and placed 5th for girls under 15. I was happy but vowed to win the next National championship. Covid and a knee surgery delayed me a bit but I went on to win the U15 National Championship in 2022. After a lot more training both in the gym and on snow (including training camps in Chile and Austria), I reached my goal of winning GOLD at the Canada Winter Games in PEI in January of 2023! This was followed up with my first trip to Junior Worlds in Italy where I came 9th. My goal for 2024 is to compete in the Youth Olympic Games in Korea in January and to return to Junior Worlds!

How to get there? Train. Train. Train. I’m currently in the gym 6 days a week, 2 hours a day in addition to working 5 days a week. I also attend intense training camps in Whistler, in preparation for on-snow training in Chile in August for a month. From there my team plans to go to the Yukon with other international teams to train on a World Cup track. If all goes according to plan, I will be in Korea in January where I will represent Canada in the Youth Olympic Games! I will also compete in five different North American races this year as well as some World Cup events and then hopefully back to Junior Worlds.

As you can imagine, it takes a lot of money to fuel my dream. My parents are my number one supporters but I want to share the load. I contribute through my summer job, but it’s hard to work, do my homework, and train too. The cost of my training and travel to competitions for this year alone is close to $40,000. And that doesn’t include the new boards! I’ve committed to my parents to pay for the full cost of my boards this year as well as my training camp in Chile. Though I’m working as much as I can, I can’t make that much, so I’ve started this Go Fund Me page to help me reach my financial commitment. Two years ago, I did a Go Fund Me campaign for a training camp in Austria which led me to win the U15 National Championship in 2022! Here’s hoping these new boards can help me get some great results.

I’d love for you to be part of my journey!

See you on the snow,

Hannah