Emma Van Groningen hopes to one day compete in the Olympics
Sisters Emma and Abby Van Groningen are high-level snowboard racers who have been representing Canada in competitions around the world. While Abby is completing high school, Emma currently attends the University of Guelph and hopes to one day compete in the Olympics.
The Ontarion had the opportunity to speak with Emma, and when asked about balancing school, training, and everything in between, Emma answered that it isn’t always easy. “It’s hard to keep an equal balance between snowboarding, working out, [and] school, while keeping a social life. Very, very hard,” said Emma. “If someone were to say that Abby and I were busy people, that would be an understatement. We have mastered doing homework in the car, on the tiny airplane trays, and anywhere we have any free time. Whenever we aren’t snowboarding or studying we try to be in the gym (or eating). A social life is a tricky one; at school I live on res so I’m constantly around my friends, and on weekends all of my close friends are on my team so we spend eight hours a day together. My sister is my best friend, when we travel together and when I come home you can’t separate us, so my social life just comes hand in hand with the things I love to do. Keeping me motivated is the ultimate goal of being a professional snowboarder. [In] everything I do, I have to keep in the back of my mind that snowboarding is the ultimate goal.”
The two sisters competed this past January in Colorado at Steamboat Springs against racers from Japan, Ireland, Australia, and North America. Abby brought home bronze in the NorAm PGS race, while Emma went on to finals for the PSL race and won. When asked about the Colorado competition, Emma explained that it was an epic experience.
“Unreal is the best way to describe it; those two weeks were the best two weeks I’ve had in relation to snowboarding in my whole life. I had just come off of a 12-day training session for the World Cup in Austria, travelling (and snowboarding in Austria and Italy). From there I went to Colorado, laid down the fastest women’s time in the GS on the first day and then ended up winning the slalom the second day. However, I now need to maintain that title and know I have to work twice as hard to keep pushing for bigger and better goals.”
Emma also explained that having the opportunity to train with her younger sister is a privilege.
“There [are] a lot of positives [in] having a sister race with me competitively on the circuits. She’s my best friend; it’s good to have a familiar face when you’re travelling across the world, [and] it’s even better to have someone there for you to push you harder and harder. Abby and I are not only competitive with other teams, but we are even more competitive with each other. I think both of us can admit that every single race, we want to do well, but we also want to beat each other more than beating anyone else. Abby and I are each other’s biggest fans; we will always be cheering for each other no matter what, but we also have that side to us where we are always pushing each other to go faster, to train harder and perfect our riding. As competitive as we are, I don’t think I would be at this level without her there to really push me to be better.”