HI JANNEKE, TELL US A LITTLE BIT ABOUT YOUR YOURSELF
Hiii! So, I’m Janneke and I am 19 years old :) I’m a Dutch freestyle mogul skier competing in the world cup. I started skiing at the age of 1,5 so I could quite literally ski before I could walk, thanks to my parents hahaha. Besides skiing I love music, photography and making videos and combining those hobbies with social media. I’m also combining my sport with online college which sometimes is a little challenging because I have to manage my own schedule, and surprisingly (not) I found out I’d rather spend time on the slopes than in books.
WHAT ATTRACTS YOU TO SKIING SO MUCH?
I love mountains, I love the cold, I love snow, I love that I feel like I’m on holiday even though I’m working my ass off, I love spending so much time with my sister, I love the feeling of flying in the air, and the adrenaline of trying a new jump for the first time. I love the feeling of snow under my skis, I love the buzz in the air on a competition day. There’s just a lot of things to love about my sport. But what I love about it the most is that it all started with my family.
INSPIRE US. WHAT’S YOUR ULTIMATE GOAL?
GOLDDDD AT THE WINTER OLYMPICSSSS!! That’s the ultimate dream of course. When I was young it started as “competing at the Olympics” but as I grew more and more confident in myself and in my skiing my ultimate goal grew with that. I want to become the best in the world and show and inspire everyone with the fact that you don’t have to live near any mountains to become an awesome skier :)
WHAT’S YOUR BEST MEMORY FROM SKIING SO FAR?
So, the first memory that comes to mind is one of me and my sister Laura a few years ago. We were in Austria for a competition in a super-duper small ski resort. It was a training day and we were doing some warmup turns on the way to the mogul slope, but it was soooo foggy. We couldn’t see anything we were surrounded by white. We couldn’t see where the snow ended and the fog started. So somewhere along the way we took a wrong turn and ended up at the wrong ski lift.
We called our coach, told him we didn’t know where we were and he told us the directions back to the mogul course (which wasn’t that far away because there were like only 4-5 lifts in the whole resort) which were “take the lift all the way up and take a left”. That was it. And I (being the oldest) very confidently took the right turn convinced it was left (as my left and right skills are non-existent). So we ended up back at the same ski lift and our coach had to come pick us up because we didn’t know what we did wrong hahahahaha. It’s definitely not my best moment but it sure is one of my favorites.
WHY DO YOU THINK YOU MATCH WITH CORTAZU SO WELL?
This is a fun question! My mom saw an ad for Cortazu’s first Kickstarter and showed it to me. We loved their concept of skipping the middleman and that they were a Dutch startup and of course their designs and the colors they used. I sent them an email (which they never replied to btw ouch) explaining who me and my sister were and what we do and that we’d love to wear their jackets at our competitions, Europe cup at the time. So a few months of waiting on a reply I decided to give them a call and it immediately felt like I was talking to family. I think that because Cortazu’s passion is their clothing and my passion is my sport, we match so well. they are excited about my journey, and I am excited about theirs. And along the way we can help each other out.
WHAT ARE YOUR FAVORITE CORTAZU ITEMS?
I really can’t choose between my jacket and my pants. They are so cool, and the fact that cortazu put in the time and effort to help us create specific pants for our sport is just awesome. Next to that they’re super functional, all the zippers and pockets in the right places, and they are veryyy waterproof! Believe me, I’ve skied in the worst conditions imaginable.