The tropical island of La Réunion in the Indian Ocean has produced spectacular footballers and legendary handball players and in 2026, it can also lay claim to an Olympic snowboarder.
Txema Mazet-Brown’s journey to Milano Cortina for Team GB featured early outings in the French Alps and snowboarding on the slopes of New Zealand, but before all that, his earliest years were spent in Réunion.
From a sporting perspective, French international footballers Dimitri Payet and Laurent Robert are probably the most notable products of the island, as well as Jackson Richardson, France’s most capped handball player of all time.
If Mazet-Brown comes close to matching their achievements, he will have enjoyed a remarkable career, with an Olympic debut at the age of 19.
The snowboarder, whose father is French and mother is British, believes that his rise to the top is in large part because of his travels as a youngster.
He said: “Being brought up in many different places and visiting a bunch of places and being part of a bunch of things kind of grows on you as a person, as you learn a lot from every single experience.
“Especially growing up in New Zealand, people are super helpful towards sports, especially in school.
“I know in other countries it’s quite hard to compete a lot in sport at school but New Zealand. If you do sports, it’s better so that has helped a lot in deciding to take it further or not.”
Mazet-Brown embraced his Britishness and began competing for GB ahead of the 2024/25 season.
It cames after visits to the UK to see his mum’s relatives on several occasions, with the teenager grateful for the support he has received since making the switch.
He said: “For the past couple of years, I’ve been riding for the GB team and they have been super supportive. It’s been working really well and here we are, so I’m very grateful.
“Being young and growing up, we tried to visit the UK every few years, I have quite a lot of family there.
“My mum’s British and I had been spending more and more time in Britain and with an Olympic cycle coming up, it was pretty intense needing to find the right pathway for myself and my future.”
Mazet-Brown’s Olympic experience will begin early, with qualifying in the big air getting underway on Thursday evening, before the opening ceremony.
That means he will need to hit the snow running but thankfully, Mazet-Brown comes into the event in fine form, including a recent 11th-placed finish on the World Cup circuit in Steamboat, USA.
He said: “I definitely feel that my riding is the strongest (it has been this season). It’s improved a bit also. There are a couple of new tricks that I’ve learned recently so I’m happy to show them at the Olympics.”
Sportsbeat 2026