By Josh Bell
Twice Natalie Allport was set to wear Canada’s colours at major international snowboarding events this year, and twice an injury denied her at the very last moment.
First, the 19-year-old Kanata athlete was set to make her World Cup debut in January in Colorado. But during a practice run that featured poor conditions and poor visibility with high winds and snow, Allport landed short on a jump and wound up with a bruised heel.
She managed to get back on snow before her FIS junior world championships on March 10 and made the trip over to Turkey. Canada’s top finisher in the women’s slopestyle event at last year’s junior worlds, Allport was out to improve on her ninth-place performance this time out as one of the oldest athletes.
But it wound up being a repeat story for the A.Y. Jackson Secondary School grad, as she overshot a jump on a practice day and re-injured her heel.
“It sucks because it’s one of those injuries where as much as you work in the offseason to prevent it, it’s not something you can avoid – a bruise to the bone,” highlights Allport, who also missed the Canadian championships later in March and has shut it down for the season. “I was upset after I hurt myself again but after that I just concentrated on supporting my teammates and making a good trip out of it.”
Canadians ended up sweeping both the men’s and women’s slopestyle competitions, with Tyler Nicholson and Laurie Blouin capturing gold.
“I’m really close friends with everyone on the team and we were all a really good group,” Allport adds. “It was fun to support them, motivate them, and ride down beside them during their run. It was good to see my teammates do well.”
Allport, who maintains a regular blog at natalieallport.ca, is now focused on recovering properly with physiotherapy, icing, and keeping weight off her foot. She’d like to ride in New Zealand come August prior to starting fall courses at Algonquin College, and then getting back in the game for next season.
“My idea is thinking long-term for the 2018 Olympics,” Allport signals. “Right now, it’s a lot of training rather than as many competitions as I can. It’s really expensive to try to compete in all the competitions. Ultimately, getting better as a rider is what is going to get me to 2018.”