Hamish McKnight: "It means the world to us now to be here!"

Olympic.org caught up with Hamish McKnight, head coach of the Great Britain freestyle snowboarding team.

What does it mean to you to be here at the Games? It’s been fantastic and it’s great to finally be here. It’s not the end of a long journey, but it’s a stage in a long journey for us. We’ve known for a while that we could potentially produce some medals in slopestyle and we’ve been really excited to see it coming closer and closer over the years. It means the world to us now to be here.

How are you enjoying the Games so far? We’ve mainly been up in the Mountain Cluster, but yesterday we got down to the coastal village. Went to see some short track and went around the Olympic Village there, which is a lot bigger, so that was nice to be able to feel even more part of the Games. We wanted to stay in our little bubble during our events, but now we’ve been able to break out and see a little more of the Team GB athletes and a little more of the Games. That’s been really good. Staying in the village is so simple; everything’s there for us, right at hand.

What has been your most memorable moment so far? It’s got to be Jenny [Jones]’s medal. It’s been an even longer journey for her. Training didn’t go well for her and the qualifying runs didn’t go particularly well either. Having to ride in the semis, then making it through and getting that run down in the final – then having to wait it out as she clung on to third place – they were some intense moments! We also go to go to the skeleton the other night to see Lizzy [Yarnold] get her gold. That was pretty incredible and it was great to see someone else reaching the culmination of their journey as well, and being able to share in that.