Bell Berghuis: “Everything I learned as an athlete and coach, I’m now bringing to Snowboard Cross”

Bell Berghuis’ route through snowboarding was built on persistence. From competing alongside her twin sister to representing the Netherlands on the Olympic stage, she learned just how much planning, adaptability, communication and support are needed to reach - and stay at - the highest level. 

Having applied many of those lessons on the coaching staff of the Netherlands’ Paralympic team and as a development camp coordinator, Bell is currently bringing her considerable “backpack of experience” to bear as a FIS Assistant Race Director for Snowboard Cross. 

In conversation with Inside FIS, she reflects on her role with FIS, creating a path for other women in leadership, the role of safeguarding in camp culture, why athlete-centred environments help young athletes build confidence, and why being a twin was her superpower… 

Inside FIS: So, Bell, it was FIS Integrity Director Sarah Fussek who recommended we speak to you, after being very impressed by your practical, experience-based safeguarding feedback and athlete-centered approach to development camp design. How would you describe that approach in practice? 

Bell Berghuis (BB): I think because I was an athlete, I want to give everybody the same experience of team training that they’d have at a top-level camp with one of the Alpine nations. The goal is to replicate that in our camps, while making sure the level is right for them. 

Most of the participants are from smaller, developing snow sports nations and don’t have access to anything like that, so when we get them all together, we can showcase what athletes in a team actually do. Everyone’s from a different nation, with different backgrounds, but after training and riding together they all become friends and feel like a real team. 

Inside FIS: When you were competing for the Netherlands, did you have to create those opportunities yourself? 

BB: The Netherlands didn’t traditionally produce many snowboarders, particularly in Snowboard Cross, so I really understand how it feels to tag onto another team. I’d always have to team up with athletes from other nations, like Great Britain or Australia, and later Canada or Switzerland. 

I was always trying to see where the bigger nations were, talking to their coaches, and trying to organize a course, because for Snowboard Cross you need a course. It was all about seeing if we could split costs somewhere and do joint training. Hence the idea of doing the same at a FIS camp, but bringing nations together under the FIS banner. 

Because I’m from the Netherlands, we just had a small team. First, I was competing alongside my twin sister and later by myself. That forces you to get adaptable, creative, and good at planning and finding solutions. Eventually, when I was head coach for the Netherlands in the Paralympic team, I got to share that experience and do things the way I’d have loved to do them if I’d had the means.

Inside FIS: Can you give us an insight into your role as a FIS Assistant Race Director for Snowboard Cross? 

BB: We act like an umbrella for all the local organizing committees, to support them and help ensure FIS quality standards and rules are managed during the World Cup, and that the World Cup events are held on schedule and in the right regions. We follow the whole tour and work with organizers to make sure each World Cup event goes ahead according to FIS rules. 

I do it together with Uwe Beier, who is the Race Director, and Alberto Schiavon, who is also an Assistant Race Director. The three of us travel with the tour, go to the summer inspections, and design the calendar with the organizers. We are involved in everything from the TV coverage to putting pipes on the ground and even pulling cable in different areas, if we have new locations. 

There are team meetings, technical committee meetings, video refereeing and all the connections with the international teams during the competition. There’s a lot of stuff, but it’s very interesting, very dynamic and very diverse. I really enjoy it! 

Inside FIS: How do you balance safety, competition integrity and the athlete experience when you are working on a World Cup event? 

BB: I think it’s all about communication, being able to communicate what you’re doing and why, or addressing something that is going wrong. 

We want it to be a success for everybody, the local organizers, the athletes, the coaches and the fans. We want to put on a World Cup at the very highest level possible, and we also want a good show for TV. 

If something’s going wrong, we must be very open and communicative about it with the involved parties. By doing that with respect, you also get respect back. That creates a level of safeguarding as well: no matter what the culture or what the problems are, you talk to and listen to each other in a respectful manner. 

In the end, FIS is responsible for the World Cup, and we’re personally responsible for getting it done in a great way. We’ve got to make sure all the moving parts perform during the live TV window: the athletes, the TV director, the people on the course, and the course itself. How we get there can happen in many ways, but the biggest thing is communicating. 

Inside FIS: In recent years, have you noticed more women represented in leadership positions in snow sports? 

BB: Yes, I think so. In terms of coaching staff, we have two women coaches within the World Cup group for two different nations, and I think they are doing a great job. We’re also seeing more women officials, and that visibility is important. 

People ask me, “What did you do before?” and in fact I came to FIS via the Technical Delegate (TD) educational platform. I was out of snow sports for a while, out of the loop with what FIS was doing, but then I thought that maybe it was something that I could do. 

So, I try to encourage other people who are working at events, not only women, and tell them that maybe it could be something for them too, because we can always use different skill sets in TD education.

Inside FIS: Turning to your experience designing youth or development camps, how do you balance progression and enjoyment with physical and mental wellbeing? 

BB: You have to design the camp as a safe learning ground for people who’ve never seen each other before, but who all come there for the same thing. They love Ski Cross or Snowboard Cross, and they want to get better in the sport they’re passionate about. 

Over five days or a week, you want everybody to enjoy themselves and push their skills to their limit, physically and technically, but not go over it. You’re not going to change everything in a week, but you can give them the tools. If they’re really motivated to put in the work and be better at the sport, you can give them the knowledge and the tools to start doing that. 

Inside FIS: How do you manage different ability levels within the same camp?  

BB: All the athletes also bring a development coach, which gives you more hands to work with than only the FIS staff. Normally, we have a head coach of Ski Cross and a head coach of Snowboard Cross organized by FIS, and if we can, we also bring somebody who is an expert in physical training. 

But we also give the development coaches the opportunity to enhance and extend their own coaching skills - coaching the coaches - which is something I took from Para. In Para, you might be coaching an athlete with a certain prosthetic, but you also need to know how to coach someone else who might come into the team with a different prosthetic. 

You also see that with development coaches in Ski Cross and Snowboard Cross. They grow with their athlete, and then some of the athletes outgrow them.  So, we rotate the coaches across the various skill-level groups to give them experience at different levels of coaching, plus that way the athletes get to experience different coaching styles too. 

Inside FIS: Regarding the Para Snowboard camps you coordinated in Manchester and Dubai, what did they teach you about inclusion and building confidence in developing athletes? 

BB: The Para camps actually work the same as any other camp. The only difference is that athletes might be using prosthetics, and some prosthetics have limits that others don’t, but in the end the camp dynamic and the way we work with the athletes is the same. 

Everyone’s there to learn and increase their experience, and with Para athletes, you sometimes see even more motivation because the sport they’re doing gives them a lot of freedom. You might even have to hold them back a bit for the first couple of days, because with prosthetics, they might get blisters because they’re not used to doing so much in one day. That’s the same for any athlete who comes to a Ski Cross or Snowboard Cross camp, you always have to build fitness gradually.

Inside FIS: How do you make athletes comfortable enough to speak up if they need support? 

BB: We try to be very open from the beginning and very clear about our picture of coaching. If somebody’s not comfortable with anything, often they’ll first tell their development coach, but sometimes they are shy about it. If they want to tell me, they can. The only thing we can do is be open, friendly and communicative about things. 

We also make sure there’s no shame if you can’t do something or if you fall really hard - we’re all there to help and support each other. In the end, we’re trying to motivate and learn with them, for them. I think it becomes a natural process. 

Inside FIS: Looking back at your own Snowboard Cross career, how much does it mean to have represented the Netherlands at the highest level? 

BB: It’s both hard and good to look back. I achieved titles and I also got the opportunity to travel the world and compete at the highest level. I never made a[n end-of-season] podium, so part of me thinks, “I missed out a podium”. But on the other hand, coming from a flatland country, being so creative and so motivated to keep pursuing the sport has definitely shaped me as a person. 

Ten years competing in the World Cup, competing twice at the X Games, once at the Olympics, and being in the top 24 in the world. For someone from a country that has no mountains, I’m very proud of what I achieved. And I loved every moment of it, maybe not the injuries, but everything else!

Inside FIS: One final question, was having a twin sister who competed in the same sport almost like a superpower?

BB: Oh yeah, 100 percent! There’s no way either of us would have gone far without each other. We were so hooked on snowboarding that the only thing we wanted to do was snowboard and get better and better. When she could do something I couldn’t then I’d be practicing like crazy to be better than her at that trick, and she’d do the same with me!

Then we switched from Freestyle to Snowboard Cross, because we were too competitive for a jury element, and that really helped us to push our abilities to the limit - and sometimes over it! But that’s a cornerstone of what we’ve done during our careers, and of the person who I am now.