Alex 'Chumpy' Pullin up for a fight Alex Pullin in action at the USANA Snowboardcross World Cup in Colorado in 2012. AS the rest of the world obsesses about Chechen rebels and gay protesters, and maybe even gay Chechen rebels, at the Winter Olympics in Sochi, Alex "Chumpy" Pullin is more concerned about the small moments. In other words, those tiny, precious little moments in the snowboard cross when he and up to five other competitors are jamming crazy at 90km/h down a course of cambered turns, jumps and drops, trying not to nudge each other, trying to be the last one standing and the first one across the line at the end of the madness. Those moments, such as the one in the quarter-finals at the last Winter Olympics in Vancouver in 2010, when he was fastest in qualifying before crashing out in his first head-to-head race. "I remember those moments," Pullin says. You're holding on to everything, and you're fighting and changing and adjusting. It looks like organised chaos, but from my view there's a lot of strategy. It's more like a fight. It's not about me having a perfect run. It's not judged. It's a straight up battle and it doesn't have to look like art. If you're standing on your feet at the end, you won the fight. Medal favourite: Alex 'Chumpy' Pullin. Pullin - or "Chumpy" as he's been universally known since childhood, although there's no particular reason why - heads to Russia for next month's Games as the face of our largest ever Australian winter team. While fellow snowboarder Torah Bright is considered a medal certainty in the half-pipe, it's Pullin who shoulders significant pressure, having won the last two world championships and two overall World Cups in the last four years. "That's not really a choice that I made," he says calmly of his new-found status as Winter Olympics pin-up boy. But that's what you get when you're No.1 in any sport. You can't expect there won't be any attention when you rock up to the next event. Running into Sochi, I'm exactly where I want to be. I can't complain now about there being too much pressure. And I hold more pressure than anything anyone could ever put on me. I've set myself for this one event this season. It's a heavy undertaking, but I chose to do it. I'm not trying to dodge that fact. Sitting with Chumpy on a perfect Friday morning on a park bench on the southern headland at Dee Why on Sydney's northern beaches where he now lives, Pullin is possibly the calmest Olympic gold medal favourite in memory. He leaves for Austria next Friday, before the opening ceremony on February 7, but others have questioned whether he's had the best preparation, having crashed out in the World Cup event just before Christmas and limiting the number of races he competes in heading into Sochi. Some have branded it a "slow start" to the year; he calls is self-preservation. "People criticise me for sitting here on the beach, a month out from the Olympics," he says. That's been my plan. I skipped my last event of last year because I didn't need it. I'd already put the Crystal Globe [for winning the World Cup] away, I'd already won the tour, and I thought, 'Let's not be greedy'. I love racing, don't get me wrong, but I would never have forgiven myself if I raced this season, trying to get something under my belt, and had an injury and didn't go to Sochi. I know my sport really well: prior to the Olympics, there are a lot of people trying to qualify. They will do anything. I just want to get there healthy. By way of example, consider the World Cup event in Vallnord-Arcalis, Andorra, last weekend, when desperate competitors wound up with a litany of concussions and broken bones. Or the plight of two-time defending Olympic champion Seth Wescott, the 37-year-old who is walking a selection tightrope, although he should earn selection via discretion. He competed in Andorra, too, in his first competition since a left knee reconstruction in April after he fell into a crevasse in Alaska while shooting a film for ski and snowboard director Warren Miller. "I don't criticise Seth for pushing his snowboarding into all areas of the sport," Pullin says. That's his choice. I fear that guy as much as anyone. However, Pullin doesn't share Wescott's fear about a terrorist attack at the opening ceremony in the wake of two recent suicide bombings in Russia. Unconfirmed claims on Friday that Doku Umarov, the Chechen rebel warlord who has threatened to attack the Sochi Olympics, is dead has hardly diminished concerns. "When you have a radical group saying they will do everything in their power to disrupt the games," Wescott said earlier this year, "what is the first opportunity with the most impact? To me, that's the opening ceremony. I am very concerned. Says Pullin: "That's interesting. I'd never skip an opening ceremony. The 26-year-old fondly recalls the opening ceremony in Vancouver. Pullin and his Australian teammates walked into the Olympic stadium behind Bright, who carried the national flag. "Then KD Lang sung, and she sung Hallelujah, it blew my mind," he says. Russia has a huge investment [estimated to be $56 billion] in these games. The biggest ever by a mile. You don't throw the world's biggest winter party and invite the world along to have people going away thinking, 'That was rubbish'. The Russians are going to impress the world. While Bright has expressed her reluctance to attend Sochi if further unrest occurs, Pullin remains calm. "I don't expect the Olympics to be this perfect video game," he says. But I feel safe, for sure. I just feel sad that's a part of our many global issues at the moment: the recurring bombings and attacks. We see it all around the world. You can't say that because it's happened in Russia, it will be unsafe. They're happening everywhere. It's sad, it's tough, but we travel the world, as competitors, to a lot of other places. At the Olympics, I will feel safer in Russia than anywhere, because of the security. It won't be taking the excitement away for me. As for the country's Draconian anti-gay laws, Pullin says: "We're going into a foreign country. Everyone's got their own culture. You're in their world. I'm there strictly to compete, I am there as part of the Australian team. It's Pullin who carries as much expectation as any of his 60 or so teammates in Sochi, and Chumpy is a nickname you're about to hear more frequently next month. "I've been telling my mates I better come up with an interesting story for it," he says, laughing. Because there isn't one, really. I've been called it since I was kid, for no reason. For Pullin, nicknames are less important than being the last one standing, on his feet, at the end of the fight. Sport: Snowboarding Born: September 20, 1987 in Mansfield, Victoria Lives: Northern Beaches, Sydney Height: 186cm Weight: 88kg Nickname: Chumpy Coach: Ben Wordsworth World Ranking: No.1 Career Highlights: Winning the 2011 Snowboard Cross World Championships in La Molina, Spain, and the 2013 World Championships in Stoneham, Canada. Winning the Crystal Globe as the overall winner of the World Cup tour in 2011 and 2013. 2 x Ski and Snowboard Australia Athlete of the Year. Other info: Won the FIS Snowboard Australia National Championships at age 15. Has been touted as Australia's best medal chance in Sochi. First Australian to win back-to-back winter sport World Championships. Plays in a reggae band called "Love Charli."