Every weekend, Ken Vuagnoux’s family made the 3-hour return journey from their home in Beaulieu-sur-Mer “just 100 metres from the Mediterranean” to the mountain flat rented “for the season” in Seignus, in the southern Alps. This tradition dated back to his earliest childhood—a memory he cherishes for “the laughter and sheer fun of being together.” The wonderful getaways stemmed from his father’s infatuation with being out on the slopes. “My dad’s a simple guy,” he says. “He has 2 obsessions: snowboarding in winter and fishing in summer.” 

That enthusiasm was clearly catching, since both Vuagnoux offspring—Ken and his older brother—were snowboarding almost before they could walk. Highlights from the family camcorder include footage of toddler Ken in powder. “I must have been just over 2, my feet in moonboots strapped to a snowboard that was way too big for me,” he recalls with a laugh. In the late 1990s, there weren’t many ski schools that taught snowboarding, so his dad stepped up, assisted on occasion by his uncle, a local ski instructor. There are worse ways to follow in your family’s footsteps.

But the thrill of this winter sport was hit by tragedy when Ken’s uncle died suddenly and far too young. Returning to the valley was no longer an option for the family; the journey was simply too painful. “Had it not been for my uncle’s death, I wouldn’t be where I am today. I probably wouldn’t have started entering competitions,” he now says. While his parents gave up their own weekends in the mountains for a while, they nonetheless registered Ken with a ski club so that he could continue. At age 11, he cut back on snowboarding, but continued to enjoy winter sports. “I’d go up to the mountains every fortnight or so. On Saturdays we’d train on the half-pipe at La Colmiane.” But he soon found racing had more appeal than acrobatics.

When young Ken stumbled on a poster at the club promoting a snowboard cross competition—an action-packed race with bumps, berms and tight turns pitting multiple riders against each other—he jumped at the chance. “That first event wasn’t particularly challenging, but I finished top in my category and caught the bug.” From then on, with his supportive parents always willing to drive him from venue to venue, Ken Vuagnoux took part in every regional race, traveling hundreds of kilometres. Two years later he found himself at a real snowboard cross club: the Back to Back at the Isola 2000 resort in the French Alps. And he’s never left.

Isola 2000’s remote location meant that training was not particularly intensive—around twice a month, and a bit more during the holidays. But it was enough to propel Ken to his first French national championships, held in Chamonix in 2010. “At that event, I was clueless. It was all insane. I won the title in my last year as a Junior. 
The victory changed Ken’s life forever. Luc Faye, the French Ski Federation’s national technical expert for snowboarding, welcomed the young upstart with open arms. In fact, Ken had scarcely finished his race when Faye suggested he sign up for a young athletes’ programme combining secondary school with snowboarding—the first step towards selection for the French national team. Boarding school was part of the deal. “At the start it was really tough to live so far from home and master an elite sport,” says Ken. “Until then I’d simply enjoyed snowboarding, but suddenly it wasn’t fun anymore—I trained until every muscle ached.”

But the youngster who had never imagined becoming a professional athlete—who admits he was “the least fit of anyone”—and never prepared for a life in sport, dug in and held on. Of the 7 kids in his generation who embarked in the programme, he is the only one still competing. What kept him going? The sheer pleasure of being out on the slopes, living with a group, and “all the dumb pranks you get up to in boarding school” were key, says Ken. “I focused on the good stuff, despite the challenges.” One of the biggest challenges was the one-on-one debriefs with his coach as their bus headed home from competitions. “I was an average athlete in those days. I never achieved spectacular results, and he kept urging me to buckle down and up my game.” It was painful. But those sessions paid off in the end. “They called me the ‘Champion of Chill’ to remind me I didn’t train hard enough. It was never clear whether I even wanted to win.”

Ken’s story could have ended there. Like so many promising athletes, he could have faded from the scene without ever reaching his full potential. But once again a key competition changed everything. In March 2013, at the French National Championships at Isola 2000, Ken surprised everyone by placing 3rd, just behind Olympic medallist Paul-Henri De Le Rue. “Without that podium win, people would have continued to see me as a nice, laid-back guy, coasting along with no particular ambition. I never would have made it onto the French team,” says Ken.

But his medal moved him onto the elite European circuit. And while his competitions outside France brought no spectacular victories, they did enable him to qualify—narrowly—for the 2014 World Junior Championships in Valmalenco, Italy, where history repeated itself. Once again, Ken was in the right place at the right time, and clinched another 3rd place win. 

“My sports federation was over the moon, since no French contender had secured a podium win in the Juniors category for 7 or 8 years,” Ken recalls. More to the point, this win marked a before and after in his mind. “For quite a while I’d wondered what I was doing there—whether I really deserved my place. But after that race, it was settled: I was legit.” More titles and medals followed. Ken took part in the World Cup the next year, finishing a promising 8th, then won a European Cup event, and then, at the last minute, qualified for the 2018 Olympic Games in Pyeonchang, South Korea. There, as he describes it, “I wasn’t really focused—I was so happy to be there that I almost forgot about the competition.” That experience ended with a disappointing finish in the quarter finals.

But since then Ken has matured, overcoming major ankle injuries in 2019 and early 2020—incidents that tested his character and strengthened his resolve. Joining the SNCF Athletes Programme was another big step. Despite his youth, Ken Vuagnoux knew he had no time to lose and was determined to make the most of his opportunities. He saw joining SNCF group as a critical move, following in the footsteps of Olympic medallists Paul-Henri De Le Rue and Tony Ramoin. He signed his special employment contract at the end of July 2020.

At SNCF Ken works in customer care, backing up his manager in an area that runs along France’s southern coast from Nice to Toulon. What does he do? “I make sure things run smoothly in our stations,” he says. But he acknowledges that starting his supervisory position was “jumping in at the deep end.” As his first professional experience, it was daunting, and he admits that he’s “still learning.” His team, he says, is “very protective and supportive” and he plans to take them out on the slopes one weekend soon to introduce them to snow sports.

So what did he enjoy most in his first few months on the job? “How versatile everyone is! This is no factory job: there’s so much going on, and I’m still learning new things all the time.” In fact, the fast-paced environment rules out any adrenalin drop when transitioning from training to the office and back again. And Ken has already learned a first lesson: “Like many travellers, I was the first to complain if my train was late. But now I see just how complex a railway worker’s job is—how much expertise it requires. My takeaway? The more people criticize this company, the more unfair it seems, and I want to defend it.”