Zoe Gillings finishes 5th at Montafon Snowboard X!
TeamGB Olympic SBX athlete Zoe Gillings finishes in an impressive 5th place at the opening Snowboard X World Cup of the 2014 Olympic season in Montafon, Austria!
Qualifying in 16th place for the finals, Zoe showed impressive racing skills in each of her heats putting her many years of racing experience and peak physical condition to excellent use and in turn progressing through to the big final where she finished in 5th place overall against a World Class field.
Zoe commented after the race, "Fifth was a solid start to this Olympic season, obviously I would have liked to have medalled but I am happy none the less. My team, John Noonan (S&C), Dr Graeme Close (nutritionist), Steve Humphries (physiotherapist) Dave Collins (sports psychologist) and Paddy Mortimer (performance director) have worked really hard over the summer with me and I've seen some huge gains in places I've traditionally always struggled in. I'm really looking forward to the next race in Lake Louise, Canada in two weeks time."
It was just under 4 years ago the previous governing body for skiing and snowboarding in Great Britain - SnowsportGB - went into administration. Zoe commented, "a great deal has changed with the new governing body (British Ski & Snowboard - BSS) - which I never thought possible. It is extremely professional, has generated serious amounts of UK Sport funding and has personally given me access to some of the best coaches and practitioners available at the top level of Olympic sport today - it is awesome.
Not only has Zoe just received an invitation to the prestigious Winter X Games Snowboard cross competition in Aspen, Colorado, in January but only 2 weeks ago she launched her second major online business - www.ExpertHealth.me - an online website offering two detailed downloadable plans focussed on weight loss, the first being a nutritional plan containing over 70 pages of weight loss advice including 10 weeks of detailed meal plans and the second being a detailed fitness plan accompanied by an online video library- again focussing on 10 week detailed fitness plans.
Zoe commented after the race, "I'm lucky and can access the best Olympic nutrition and fitness advice in the country, this means it's now fairly easy for me to lose weight and get physically fitter despite finding it nearly impossible previously when I couldn't access this advice. Together with my Olympic nutritionist (Dr Graeme Close) and fitness coach (John Noonan) we have produced these weight loss plans for the general public to use. Following on from London 2012, I'd really like to help leave a legacy for Sochi 2014 in bringing this expert weight loss advice to the general public.
Zoe now heads to Lake Louise, Canada, for the next World Cup of the season ahead of the 2014 Olympic Games in Sochi, Russia.