Chris Vos op weg naar Pychang (2018)

Director Jesse Bleekemolen will make a documentary about the nineteen-year-old snowboarder Chris Vos. Bleekemolen announced on Saturday that for this still untitled film he plans to follow the young sportsman in his preparations for the 2018 Paralympic Winter Games, to be held in the South Korean city of Pyeongchang. Vos, born in Haarlem, is partially paralysed due to a serious accident suffered when he was five years old. Although doctors predicted that the boy would be confined to a wheelchair for the rest of his life, he learned to walk with the aid of a so-called orthosis (a type of prosthetic device) on his leg. When Vos was seven, he started snowboarding. The sportsman gained national prominence in 2010 after taking part in the television programme Cappies Award presented by Lucille Werner. In this programme the presenter highlighted what physically disabled children can do instead of what they cannot do. Thanks to Cappies, Vos came into contact with snowboarder Bibian Mentel, who helped him to practice his hobby on a professional level. JOHAN CRUYFF In 2013 Vos became Junior World Champion, and one year later, at the age of fifteen, the Dutch snowboarder participated in the Paralympic Winter Games in Sochi as the youngest ever Dutch debutant. The teenager is also an ambassador for the Johan Cruyff Foundation and he has received a major award from his home town of Beemster. It is not yet clear where the documentary will be shown after the Paralympic Winter Games in 2018. Previous work by Bleekemolen (19) includes the film Fataal, which is about the consequences of mindless violence.