Laid-back snowboarder Nicholls kicks-off his Sochi campaign

Jamie Nicholls is the stereotypical, laid-back snowboarder.

There is an element of the reckless about him, the carefree, the brash.

This 20-year-old from Bradford doesn’t do serious, only when he is competing at snowboard slopestyle, and even then, the freedom of expression outweighs a win-at-all-costs mentality.

On Thursday morning in Sochi he bids to book his place in the medal round of a sport he has been on a talent pathway towards since the age of nine.

Such pressure from such a young age could have broken more withdrawn people, but larger-than-life Nicholls shoulders the responsibility with ease.

The 22nd Winter Olympics might be the grandest stage for snowboarding and the biggest moment of his life, yet he remains so chilled out it is as if he is back on the slopes at Halifax Ski and Snowboard Centre in Queensbury, trying to impress his friends.

“There was a jump at the bottom of the Halifax slopes,” recalls Nicholls, who would steal traffic cones with his friends to use as obstacles.

“It was only little, but I was only 10, and as soon as I progressed from the nursery slope I moved onto the other surface.

“I went up the lift and straight away thought ‘right I’m going to do this jump’.

“I went straight off the jump, did a little indi-grab and landed it and I just remember riding away cheering in front of my friends.

“I went straight back up the lift and did it again and again.”

Ever the showman, Nicholls has been revelling in impressing people ever since.

American Shaun White, the guru of halfpipe who bids for a hat-trick of Olympic titles in Sochi, is an unpopular figurehead at the top of the snowboarding tree.

But to Nicholls, he is a friend as well as an idol.

“Shaun teaches me a lot, he’s such a nice person,” says the young Yorkshireman, who takes his mind off snowboarding by going rock climbing.

“Everyone in the snowboarding world hates him for some reason and I don’t know why, because I have so much respect for him.

“When I first met him in Austria he tried to get me to do a triple cork and I was so scared of going upside down three times. He was saying ‘you’ve got this Jamie, you’re not going to bail you’re a good snowboarder’.

“I landed it first try and we celebrated together.

“It’s cool having that relationship with one of the great icons of the sport.

“People hate on him because he’s the guy at the top. He is the best, he’s pretty much done everything and I look up to him and I respect him a lot.

“When you see him train he still trains that hard after all he’s won. You’d think he’d have one run then head to the bar. He’s actually still up there training as hard as he can.

“He’s up there all day, then he’ll hit the gym and he’ll do it all again the next day.”

Challenging White for supremacy may be beyond Nicholls, but he is not at his first Olympics to sulk if he doesn’t win a medal.

He is there to express himself and continue having the time of his life, a mantra he has stuck to since he first went snowboarding.

“My aim is to go out there, have fun, enjoy the experience and land the run and hopefully do well,” says Nicholls, for whom success means walking off the mountain with no regrets.

“I’m not going to go there and just do a safe run like you would at the World Cups.

“When you train you try to go at 100 per cent because at least you know if you go full out in training and you do crazy runs, then when you go to a competition you can maybe go to 80 per cent and you’re going to land it.

“At the Olympics and I’ll go at 80 per cent, knowing if I need to, I’ve got that extra 20 per cent.”