The coaches behind Canada and New Zealand's snowboard champions

As the saying goes, behind every great athlete is a great coach. And while athletes are often asked ‘how did you do it?’ after each medal-winning performance, a seldom asked question is how their coaches helped them do it.

According to the coaches behind men’s slopestyle World Champion Liam Brearley (CAN) and women’s slopestyle World Champion Zoi Sadowski-Synnott (NZL), the answer lies in finding balance.

For Elliot Catton, Canada’s national snowboard coach who met Brearley when the future world champion was just eight years old, recognising the mind-body connection is key to helping his riders excel.

The 38-year-old, who also coaches 2024/25 slopestyle Crystal Globe winner Cameron Spalding, said helping riders turn their potential into a competitive edge on the world stage is not a linear process.

“The technical approach might be very straightforward – ‘do this, and we go here and we get better’ – but it's not a linear path up. It's peaks and valleys, and there's all kinds of things that can influence whether things are going to go to plan or off track when you bring in all those life factors. 

“So I think it's that of understanding the big picture of what's happening in their life, and knowing what the best advice you can give in that moment to help them achieve their goals or be their best.”

From snowboarder to coach

Starting out as a snowboarder who competed internationally also gave Catton a solid foundation to become a coach at age 20 before transitioning into high performance coaching in the lead-up to the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games.

“When I first started it wasn't something that I ever aspired to,” he said.

“When I first started coaching, I didn't think of coaching at this level, and a national team.

The head coach also credits the shared vision of the entire slopestyle coaching staff for helping Canadian snowboarders such as Brearley, Spalding, Tyler Nicholson, Mikey Ciccarelli, 24-time X Games medallist Mark McMorris, three-time Olympic medallist Max Parrot, and two-time former world champion Laurie Blouin.

“I know that we put a lot of time and effort into developing a culture within our program that's going to serve the culture of snowboarding and try to develop and be influential in helping people not just be good snowboarders or great snowboarders, but become good people who are here to serve the community,” said Catton.

“And so that's not the same for everybody. It's getting to know that individual, and how can we be an upgrade in their lives, so that when they move on from this – from snowboarding, competitive snowboarding, or from our program – we have been beneficial in helping them in whatever it is.

“That's something that we view as important for us and potentially unique in our approach.”

Canadian camaraderie

For 20-year-old Spalding, the camaraderie on the Canadian snowboarding team is what he thinks sets Canadian slopestyle apart.

“It’s pretty special. I feel like our team is one big family. We’re together so much of the year – riding, competing, everything – so everybody’s really close,” said the Crystal Globe winner.

“We all get along really well, and it’s really helpful for our riding because we can just feed off each other. Without having a crew like this, it would be a lot more difficult to come to places like this (2025 World Championships) and perform when we need to.”

Spalding also believes he and his teammates have one of the best support teams on the international circuit.

“We’re fortunate to have a crew like that because it definitely makes a big difference," said Spalding.

Brearley agrees and credits the way he and Spalding are coached with helping them perform at their best.

“I think our team especially focuses a lot more on that mental side of things than a lot of the other teams do,” said Brearley.

“I think that helps us a lot with contests especially.”

Similar to Brearley, Spalding also met Catton when he was just a child in Ontario where Catton worked as a coach with the Simple Snowboarding program.

“I grew up riding with Elliot. So my first couple of years getting coached as a snowboarder was with him, and now to be reunited with him on this stage, it’s pretty amazing,” said Spalding.

Different coaching styles for different athletes

Adapting to different athletes of different ages and at different levels of progression is a continuous learning curve for Catton.

“When I first started with the Canadian team (in 2014) … it was a very autonomous bunch that really were able to take care of themselves and do a lot of things on their own, and we were trying to introduce things that would be of better support and help for them,” he said.

“Now a lot of the guys and girls are younger – like Cam and Liam – and as I saw that shift, it took me a little bit but I recognised that I had to change the way that I coached. 

“They weren't as autonomous. They're riders who have come up through a coaching program, so they're used to having that coaching support. So that autonomous approach – where I wasn't telling our established riders what to do, I was there trying to be a support and do what they felt they needed – would not be helpful.

“I had to learn how to balance that. With certain riders I still approached it in the way I had, where they're going to be more autonomous and do things on their own and in their own ways – and start to have a little bit more directive, but keeping in mind I wanted to coach them to be more autonomous.

Catton has also enjoyed watching Spalding and Brearley transition from kids to World Cup and World Championship-winning athletes.

“It's been really cool in the last year or two and especially this year, with guys like Cam and Liam now 20 and 21 years old and starting to really own their own process and know what they need to do to be able to perform, instead of being pushed and told to practise in a certain way or do things in a certain way.

“So we're finding a good flow and groove of how to balance that as well.”

Coaching a three-time World Champion

More than 13,000 kilometers away in New Zealand and with a similar coaching approach to Catton is Sean Thompson, the coach of three-time women’s slopestyle World Champion and 2024/25 slopestyle Crystal Globe winner Zoi Sadowski-Synnott.

“I see coaching as two separate things,” said Thompson.

“You've got coaching the sport, and you've got coaching the person.

When Sadowski-Synott became World Champion for the third time in March 2025 after coming back from injury, the 24-year-old credited Thompson as being instrumental to helping her reach new limits in an already stellar career.

Sadowski-Synnott was 20 when she became New Zealand’s first Olympic Winter Games gold medallist when she won the women’s snowboard slopestyle at Beijing 2022.

Days later she took silver in big air to give her a complete set of Olympic medals with the bronze she claimed in big air as a 16-year-old during the PyeongChang 2018 Games.

Working with athletes such as Sadowski-Synnott has also taught him a lot, Thompson said.

“I learn every day from my athletes (laughs),” he said.

"They're the best learners and the best adapters to what they need to do to make themselves better people and better snowboarders. And for me, seeing them go through those processes is probably the thing that I've learned the most.”

Personal drive and love of snowboarding

Thompson believes an internal drive and passion for success are what ultimately give snowboarders a competitive edge, especially when recovering from injury.

“Those two things together really help an athlete work through those challenging scenarios,” he said.

“Your pressure and your confidence, and internal and external pressures – they can get pushed aside really quick when the passion is high and the love for it is high.

“So it's really trying to identify that and help them understand where they're at in the journey. And once they can understand that, all that other stuff doesn't matter, and it's about them doing what they love and trying to achieve their goals when it matters the most – on the stage and in the bib.”

Thompson sees his role as creating a progressive learning environment where athletes like Sadowski-Synnott feel supported and empowered when taking risks.

“You work together, as opposed to telling them what to do. You're problem-solving together, and I think that's a really, really important part to high-performance coaching, which is your relationship with your athletes, and how you work through the challenges in front of you.”

Sadowski-Synnott considers herself lucky to have Thompson in her corner.