The first male Olympic competitor on snowboard in Britain, Dan Wakeham has announced that he will be retiring from the world cup circuit. He has recently announced that following seven years with the British snowboarding team, he will be retiring from World Cup level competition. Dan Wakeham is only 27 years old, and was regularly regarded as being a potential hopeful for next year's Winter Olympic medal. The games are slated to be held in Vancouver.
Dan Wakeham said that the decision that he made to retire was one that he had been considering for a great deal of time. Ultimately, he said, what it came down to was a loss of motivation for the sport, a lack of funding and lack of interest in the top levels of competition, which definitely meant that the Olympics were out. After putting a lot of serious thought into the situation, Dan Wakeham ultimately decided that he did not want to pursue World Cup level snowboarding any longer. He specifically mentioned that he always felt motivated to quit at the end of each season, but that he stayed because of promises of sponsorship and funding.
The fact was, according to Dan Wake, that he simply had not been happy for a while, and that he no longer felt enjoyment when he competed. His attitude toward World Cup level snowboarding had become increasingly slack with each new season, partially because there was a lack of funding, but also for other reasons as well. Dan Wakeham admitted that he did not want to try to qualify for the Winter Olympic Games half-heartedly and that he simply is not motivated enough to give the sport his all.
In his entire seven years on the British professional snowboarding team, Dan Wakeham achieved a highest world ranking at 28th. Within his first two years of competition, he took Europa Cup Championship and he took fifth in the World Cup's 2006 Halfpipe Tour. He also recorded two different top ten and eight different top twenty results within World Cup finals tournaments and also made an Olympic appearance during the Turin 2006 Olympic Games.
Wakeham does insist that he will continue to represent those sponsoring him, and he says that he is still interested in working closely with the industry surrounding extreme sports. Right now, however, his priority is to find a little bit more consistency in his life.
When Dan Wakeham made his announcement regarding retirement, he confessed that his intention was not to quit snowboarding, but rather simply to step out of the serious competition arena. His sponsors are all accepting of the decision, and they do plan to continue supporting him as he represents them. Still, rather than snowboarding day in and day out, Dan Wakeham would like to focus on a normal job with a regular 9-5 kind of salary for a while.
Photo Credits: jeffcapeshop
Originally posted 2009-05-27 16:41:08. Republished by Blog Post Promoter
Related Posts -
Eighth Annual FIS Snowboard World Championships With the New Year, we see a new January packed with many events for the snowboarder to prepare for and the fan to keep watch over. Included in the events is the eighth annual FIS snowboard world championships, held in Sungwoo, Gangwon Province from the 17th to the 24th. Also...... -
Winter Park Resort, Winter Park, Colorado Winter Park Resort is located in Winter Park, Colorado in the United States Phone: (970) 726-5514 / (800) 729-5813 Website: http://www.skiwinterpark.com/index.htm About the Resort - Winter Park Resort offers an outstanding peak elevation of 12,060 with vertical heights reaching 3,060 feet. Winter Park Resort is spread across four different mountains...... - Athlete Profile of Bode Miller Date of Birth: October 12, 1977 Where Was He Born: Bretton Woods, NH Interesting Youth Highlights: Bodeâs parents took a novel approach to raising him and for many years they lived in a cabin without running water or electricity. He did not attend regular school until after his parents divorced.......
- Skier Profile for Bryon Friedman The turning point in Bryon Friedman's life was when he moved to Utah and began to take advantage of its prime skiing mountains. Bryon was only nine years old, but he quickly found the mountains of Utah to be home to him. Since then, Bryon has mixed schooling and ski......
- US Ski Team Member Profile of David Babic David Babic in a current member of the US Ski Team that is quickly rising in popularity. He was born in Berlin, VT and currently resides in Washington, VT. He has been on the team for four years, and this 29 year old athlete is definitely a rising star youâll......
Related Websites -
World Cup 2010 Draw [/caption] In many ways, the World Cup draw is much like Selection Sunday for the NCAA basketball tournament: Coaches, players and supporters gather around TVs and computers with bracket sheets and venue information, an excruciatingly drawn-out proceeding that will lead to endless debate and dissection. Unlike the basketball drama, however,...... -
Leveraging Your Relationships to Make Money This is a guest post by Andy Burger, who offers up some advice about using existing relationships to further your success. You can find more of his commentary about personal finance, the economy, and the stock market at www.purpandmoney.com. How many times have you heard, "it's not what you know,......
- Five Lessons I Learned From My Own Frugal Dad This is a guest post from The Investor, the publicity-shy blogger who writes about money and finance at Monevator. If you like this post, you can subscribe to his free RSS feed for similar posts on money and investing topics. Not everyone is lucky enough to have a frugal dad.......
-
Sony 2010 FIFA World Cup Promotions [/caption] Sony kicks off countdown to world’s most anticipated football event with Sony 2010 FIFA World Cup™ Caravan Strikes strategic collaboration among official FIFA Partners to leverage high profile partnership marketing platform Spearheading its AV/IT and lifestyle innovator leadership position, today, Sony Thai Company Limited announced a strategic partnership with...... -
Visit Australia: The UN-Official Guide [/caption] Australia is the largest island in the world and a continent to itself. Before European settlement, it was inhabited by the Aborigines (or Kooris) for some 42,000 years. It was first visited by the Dutch in the 17th century and later colonized by the British in the 18th......
- Men Boots Snowboarding Winter Sports
- Youth Boots Snowboarding Winter Sports
- Snowboards Snowboarding Winter Sports
- Women Boots Snowboarding Winter Sports
- Bindings Snowboarding Winter Sports
Categories:
California, Male Profiles, Snowboarding
Tags:
0 comments ↓
There are no comments yet...Kick things off by filling out the form below.
Leave a Comment