Aussie 13-year-old Ben Tudhope is eyeing a place at the Sochi Games Sochi Winter Paralympic hopeful Ben Tudhope is off to Europe for snowboarding this weekend. Picture: Jeff Crow. AUSTRALIA'S newest winter Paralympic hopeful is only just taller than his snowboard and has had to skip the last three weeks of school to hit the European slopes. Year 8 student Ben Tudhope from Manly in Sydney will fly to The Netherlands this weekend in a bid to earn a wildcard for the 2014 Paralympic Winter Games in Sochi, Russia, in March. If successful, the 13-year-old with Cerebral palsy and partial paralysis on his left side, would become Australia's youngest ever winter Paralympian. Tudhope in action on the slopes. "Hopefully I will but because I'm so young I don't guarantee anything," Ben said. I'll go over there and have fun and get some experience. Ben competes in para-snowboard cross which is like motocross with jumps and berms but on the snow. Competitors snowboard over the course one at a time and fastest time wins. "I'm not really thinking about what's ahead of me, I just try to feel the snowboard on my feet," Ben said. Ben lists his older sister Annabel as his hero after she introduced him to snowboarding about five years ago at Mt Hotham. As he improved, he began training with the winter sports club at Perisher in NSW and has since competed around the world. On Saturday he will be accompanied by his mum to The Netherlands before heading to Austria and Utah for training where his dad will join them. Ben, who turns 14 in December, stands 150cm and his French-made snowboard is 141cm long, making it almost as tall as he is when he stands it on its end. Australia's youngest winter Paralympian is current national team member Mitch Gourley who was 18 when he competed in Vancouver in 2010.