The recipient of a new action sports scholarship has his sights set on the 2018 Winter Olympics.
Snowboarder Jordan John Raywood, who is known as JJ, has won Wanaka Merino clothing designer Mons Royale's inaugural Progression Scholarship.
Company founder Hamish Acland said the $5000 scholarship was aimed at helping young New Zealand action sports athletes to achieve international success. Mons Royale was the official provider of base-layer garments to the New Zealand team for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, and is using part of the profits from sales to fund the scholarship.
The scholarship could be used to fund travel to events, training camps and other activities which would contribute to an athlete's success on the global stage.
Raywood (18) is a member of Snow Sports New Zealand's snowboard talent development squad. He competes in the slopestyle and halfpipe formats.
From Nelson, Raywood is based in Wanaka during the winter to train at Cardrona Alpine Resort. Among his recent successes, he finished eighth in the slopestyle and 15th in the halfpipe at the 2015 FIS Snowboard Junior World Championships in China.
Raywood said he planned to use the scholarship to travel to Colorado in the United States later this year for the northern hemisphere winter.
He would be recovering from hip surgery - scheduled to take place in Christchurch next week - to repair a snowboarding injury and would focus on training and small competitions.
His goal was to qualify for the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea, he said.
