Snowboard Spotlight With Adam Lambert: Working 9-5

Each month the Snow Australia Snowboard Committee will put the spotlight on an Australian Snowboard athlete to learn more about them as they train and compete around the World. This month Adam Lambert reflects on how far he has come and his new persepctive in snowboardcross. 

What a wild ride the last 4 years have been. Between dealing with injury, managing travel, training, and competing with covid, a World Championships and an Olympic Games all thrown together it feels like we have hardly had time to take a breath! Now, 6 months post games I am sitting down to write this athlete spotlight and I am reflecting on how awesome and lucky we have been to be able to continue doing what we do. As well as the level of commitment we as athletes must put into our craft to ensure we are performing at our best.

The start of 2018 through till 2022 is a blur for me, being in my early 20s and seeing the world was an incredible experience. However, I think I got lost in all the wonder of travel and competition, and forgot that at times, I was there to do a job. This year, however, will be different. This year I am turning 25, which is still young of course, but in the context of sport I am hitting the middle ground of my career. To commit the next 4-8 years to boardercross I need to be focused on the things that are important to my sport, for me it’s a case of making sure that when I am done, I feel like I achieved my goals.

This new attitude has already started to change the way I function on a day-to-day basis. Treating snowboardcross training as a job has always been something I struggled with, it is always so fun how could I consider it a job. But this year I am making a conscious effort to turn up, be present, make plans and stick to them, meet targets, and really put the extra effort in, after all, this is my 9-5. So far, I am finding that this outlook is keeping me motivated to push myself harder, whether that be in the gym or on snow, and surprisingly enough, I am having more fun doing the things that I used to hate in the past. The gym work isn’t as boring and the grind feels just a little lighter, I am putting more hours in, but the days feel like they’re going faster.

There are only 1271 days until the next Winter Olympic opening ceremony, and 1271 opportunities to make sure I am prepared.

Adam Lambert