Venice Teen Chases Olympic Dream on a Snowboard Instead of a Skateboard

A 16-year-old from Venice has set his sights on the Olympic Games, but not through skateboarding or surfing, the pursuits many might expect from a Southern California teenager. Tristam Henkels wants to compete as a snowboarder.

Henkels has spent this month training in Switzerland and Austria as a member of the U.S. snowboard rookie team for halfpipe. Asked why he moved away from skateboarding, he said he "really liked skateboarding but needed something more exhilarating flying into the air."

There was a time when he spent nine hours a day skateboarding at a park in Santa Monica. His interest in snowboarding was sparked when he watched Chloe Kim compete at the Mammoth Mountain World Cup, shortly before her gold-medal performance at the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang.

His mother, Judy, helped turn the interest into a serious pursuit. When he was 10, she became his chauffeur and drove him to Big Bear so he could practice snowboarding. She still travels with him. Henkels is enrolled in an online school, and he previously attended Canyon Elementary School in Santa Monica.

The sport has not come without cost. Henkels has suffered three broken arms in falls, along with a compression fracture in his back. His drive to be the best has not been dampened by those setbacks, and he does not hesitate to launch himself into the air to attempt tricks.

He did acknowledge that hitting ice feels like hitting concrete, and he has learned to be careful as a result. He has not had any major injuries in the last three years. Speaking by phone from Switzerland, he described his outlook this way: "If you fall and get back up, you're going to be stronger the next time."

The road ahead is a crowded one. Competition for a berth on the 2030 Olympic team, with the Games set for France, is expected to be intense. Henkels is working his way up in a sport full of talented athletes who must maneuver their bodies much like gymnasts as they chase a perfect score of 100 from the judges.