Great Britain snowboarder Jamie Nicholls has admitted that he has great "respect" for the USA's Shaun White.
The 20-year-old revealed that he has spent some time with the two-time Olympic gold medallist, who gave him instructions on how to further succeed in the sport.
Nicholls told the Yorkshire Post: "Shaun teaches me a lot, he's such a nice person. 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."
Nicholls will get his Olympic campaign underway later today in the slopestyle, which begins at 6am GMT.
Simon Sinclair
