191: Lesley McKenna, British Snowboarding Legend

Lesley Mckenna is a legendary snowboarder in the UK scene. She was the first British snowboarder to compete at the Winter Olympics and the first to win a World Cup Half-Pipe. She went on to become coach of the most successful GB Park and Pipe team ever, plus she’s a filmmaker, ski tourer and much more. Intersport Ski Hire Discount Code Save money on your ski hire by using the code ‘SKIPODCAST’ at intersportrent.com, or simply take this link for your discount to be automatically applied at the checkout. SHOW NOTES Lesley’s parents were both ski instructors (4:00) Her grandfather was one of the original Scottish pioneers of skiing (5:30) Lesley’s cousins are Alain and Noel Baxter, who both skied slalom for Team GB (8:00) First ski season in Jackson Hole (8:30) Racing on pair of 224cm skis (13:30) Moving on to Breckenridge (16:00) Kirsteen McGibbon tragically died during a training run in 1996 (17:45) H&R Insurance were the main sponsors of Lesley’s early career (18:30) Becci Malthouse helped Lesley’s transition to snowboarding (18:45) The 1996 Brits took place in Meribel Lesley started off racing slalom before moving onto freestyle (23:30) The challenges of funding (28:00) Listen to Iain’s interview with Bode Miller (30:30) What was it like being with Alain Baxter when he won his Olympic medal (31:00) Coaching at the British Ski Academy and for Roxy (35:00) Lesley Worked through the 2014 & 2018 cycles as a coach (36:30) Listen to Iain’s interview with Pat Sharples (38:00) Jenny Jones won Britain’s first ever medal on snow at Sochi (39:00) Billy Morgan won bronze in the Big Air at PyeongChang (40:00) Wandering Workshops (43:30) The Kendal Film Festival takes place from 16-19 November (46:00) Patagonia’s film ‘Thrawn’ is about the cultural significance of snowsports in the Cairngorms (46:30) Is haggis the Scottish version of ‘hygge’? (48:00) The 2023 Brits took place in Scotland (50:30) Listen to Iain’s interview with Kirsty Muir (51:30) Watch ‘Dropstitch’ on YouTube (52:15) Lesley won Sport Scotland Coach Developer of the Year (53:00) If you like the podcast, there are three things you can do to help: 1) Review us on Apple Podcasts or Spotify 2) Subscribe, so you don’t miss another episode 3) Book your ski hire with Intersport Rent using the code ‘SKIPODCAST’ or by taking this link   You can follow Iain @skipedia and the podcast @theskipodcast