“That fire hasn’t left”: Snowboarder Elizabeth Hosking wants to reach new heights in the halfpipe

When Elizabeth Hosking made her Olympic debut at PyeongChang 2018, she was not just the youngest snowboarder on Team Canada—she was the youngest athlete on Team Canada, dropping into the halfpipe at only 16 years old.

Hosking returned to the Olympic stage at Beijing 2022, where her sixth place finish tied for Canada’s second-best ever Olympic result in women’s snowboard halfpipe. 

In 2023, Hosking took silver at the FIS World Championships, becoming Canada’s first ever world championship medallist in women’s snowboard halfpipe.

Unfortunately, 2023 also brought with it a serious injury for Hosking, as a concussion from a fall during training forced her to take a long step back from competition. The 23-year-old returned to the World Cup circuit this season, with her eyes trained towards a third Olympic appearance at Milano Cortina 2026.

READ: Everything you need to know about Milano Cortina 2026

Olympic.ca chatted with Hosking about her big goals on the road towards the next Olympic Games, the progression of international women’s snowboarding, and her overall “stoke” level for all things about her sport.

How did you get into snowboarding?

My family was always very sports-oriented. In the summer, I always played soccer, and then in the winter, when I was younger, my weekends were pretty much occupied by skiing. Around the age of six, I noticed that my older brother had started snowboarding. I was a very typical little sister, always wanting to be like my older brother and do what he’s doing. So I asked my parents, “Can I get a snowboard?” My parents wanted to keep it equal for both of us. So they were like, “No, you need to wait until you’re eight years old.” 

I guess I was hard-headed even back then…I didn’t take no for an answer. My front entrance had this U-shape and had a slope on it. So I dressed up in all of my skiing gear, put on my winter boots, took my brother’s snowboard, went up the entrance myself, and just went down. My parents looked at me through the kitchen window, and were like, “Yeah, I don’t think she’s joking about this one.” 

At what point did you realize that snowboarding could be something that you could pursue at the highest level?

My first coach approached me on the mountain. He was there with his athletes. It’s funny, I remember it was my last run [of the day]. I was tired because I was still a kid, and I just wanted to go home.

My dad was like, “Come on, one more run, one last run!” And it just happened that we arrived at the top of the mountain at the same time [as the person who would become her coach], and he went up to my father—I was like, nine at the time—and said, “I noticed your daughter is really good at snowboarding. I’m a snowboard coach. Here’s my card.” 

So it just started from there. And then that love for the whole sport just grew so much. I got really into it. Looking at the 2010 Olympics, seeing halfpipe snowboarding and Shaun White winning kind of settled it for me, that this is what I wanted to do.

How has this season been going? You’ve been returning from an injury…

This season has been one of the harder seasons, for sure. Result-wise, it’s been hard because I don’t think I’ve been able to demonstrate the level of snowboarding that I’ve been able to get back at. The results are not there, and that’s disappointing for sure. But it does motivate me to work harder. I’m a competitor. I always have been—this is what I love to do. 

In December, it was my first World Cup back after a year and a half, and I just remember thinking: this is where I’m meant to be. And that fire hasn’t left. So definitely working hard and motivated to be able to demonstrate that as well in competition. 

Do you have any advice for other athletes that are in the process of coming back from injury?

I think a big thing was opening up to my team and being honest about how some days it’s harder. I think that has really helped me knowing that I have a good team around me, and just having that support. 

But I won’t lie, it’s definitely a challenge. And this one more than any of my other injuries has been a mental challenge, being a concussion. You can’t really see the progress. It’s not like a broken bone, you can’t see on an x-ray that it’s healed. 

I think it’s just really taking it day by day. And I’m starting to learn now to really focus on the small wins and let those small wins motivate you and drive you to get more small wins.

You reached the highest levels of snowboarding when you were very young. Can you talk a little bit about how you’ve seen women’s snowboarding push itself further over the course of your career?

My first world champs [was when] I was 15, and I recently looked at runs from that year and where the sport is now [compared to then] is just crazy! But it’s super exciting at the same time, the height that the women are pushing towards. And something that I really, really like to do is push that height, go big.

[The progress in the sport] is super inspiring. And what’s almost kind of grounding, in that sense, is that in the snowboard community, there’s that respect and camaraderie between athletes. It is a competition at the end of the day—when we’re all in that start gate, it is a competition, no doubt about it—but the respect that we all have for one another, and the way we know how hard each of us works, I’m like, “Oh yeah, I could do that too!” I understand and I know this person, everyone has their own struggles, and I see them, and that they can still push like that is very inspiring as well. And motivating [because] it’s not super human. That could be me.

Any predictions of where the sport is headed in the next couple years?

I think we saw it with a few girls doing double corks. I think that will slowly be more and more in play. But I do still think that the variety and bringing your own style—judges just love to see that. [They] love to see you doing your tricks [in a way that’s] different from someone else. And I think as much as we’re all trying to push that extra spin, bigger spin, extra 180, I think at the end of the day, judges love to see everyone’s individual style and doing tricks that are not necessarily the bigger spin, but no one else is doing them. Therefore, you have that on everyone. 

How would you describe your style? 

I think my style is definitely going big. That’s really what I enjoy. I think that is something that catches your eye right away, right? 

You can tell just by eye who’s going head height and who’s going 10 feet out and beyond. And I really, really love to look at video and be like, “Dang, I was going big!” 

And I hope, when people look at my runs, they’re like, “That looked easy!” Although I’m focused on every trick, I hope someone that’s looking that doesn’t really know the sport can be like, oh, that looked really easy.

Are there any athletes that you’ve looked up to throughout your career, or as a kid?

As a kid, it was 100% Shaun White. I think the dominance of him in halfpipe snowboarding was crazy, and something that I always strive for. But I think all snowboarders kind of inspire me in their own way. 

What is your favorite memory as a fan of snowboarding? 

I think whatever event I’m watching! I just love the level of stoke that happens when a friend of yours lands a run—those are just great memories every contest. 

But the Beijing 2022 men’s halfpipe final was the craziest display of halfpipe snowboarding that we had seen that at the time—people throwing triples and the most variety we’ve ever seen, and then the biggest air in a competition, it was just things happening, one after the other.

But then being there for Shaun White’s last run…I don’t think [they showed it] on TV, but there was a standing ovation from the whole snowboard community, just clapping with respect. He undoubtedly brought snowboarding to the eyes that it has today. And it was the last run, the last hurrah, and that was just crazy, people cheering five minutes at least.

What’s your favorite snowboarding memory of your career? 

There’s a few! Dropping into the 2018 Olympics was definitely a big career milestone for me. I remember growing up in first grade, we were asked for Career Day, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” And I said that I wanted to be an Olympic soccer player, because at the time I was playing soccer. I always grew up watching the Olympics, so getting to go to the Olympics was a huge, huge life goal that I was accomplishing.

At a very young age, too!

It’s crazy to think that I’m trying to get to my third Games. But I definitely think that first podium in Copper [Mountain, in 2022] was just another dream come true. Being able to step on that [World Cup] podium for the first time was incredible. And then being able to finish that season and cap it off with a podium at world champs was surreal.