HE has been selected to represent Great Britain against global competition in American, but Lowton’s in-line hockey star Oliver Stephenson will just be hoping for less drama than his last trip across the pond, writes Matt Turner.

The 10-year-old will play for Team GB at the AAU Junior Olympics in Corona, California, in July.

The St Luke’s Primary School pupil has previous experience of playing in America for the UK Young Guns development team, but as his dad Mark explains, an accident when he slipped while skating at the airport nearly put an end to his participation.

“We caught a connecting flight from Manchester to Heathrow in the way to the State Wars 12 tournament in Indiana, and were waiting in the lounge. Our kids were bored and I had Oliver’s skates in my hand luggage,” he said.

“We found a quiet part of the airport and I put his skates on so he could have a little skate around. He lives in them so this is nothing unusual.

“However, he was skating backwards and just caught a bag and landed awkwardly.

“I knew immediately that he had done something serious because he didn’t move.

“He was taken to hospital in an ambulance where they confirmed that he had fractured his radius. Devastated isn’t the word!”

Despite his injury, Mark explains how his son plucked up the courage to play on anyway so as not to let his teammates down.

“We missed our flight and his arm was put into a cast and we flew out the following day to be with the team.

“Everyone was gutted for him, but worse for the team, they had lost a key defender.

“While on the bench, he witnessed some nasty injuries but the players all played on so this gave him the courage to have a go.

“We put some additional protection on his cast and got him an oversized glove.

“He competed in all but one of the games and his team went on to win the bronze medal.

“It was an emotional rollercoaster that we will never forget!”

While he represented the UK in Indiana last year, the Junior Olympics will be Oliver’s first time as an official Team GB athlete.

His dad says the opportunity to play for the team came about when he just fancied some extra training at the end of last year.

“To be honest, I only entered him into the trials because it was an opportunity to train with GB coaches instead of his usual club coaches so something different,” he said.

“They told us that, if a player is rejected, the letter would be addressed to the parents so they could break the news gently but if it was addressed to them, then they were in.

“When the letter came addressed to Oliver, we nearly fell off our seats. We tried to keep it until Christmas.

“The excitement was killing us so we gave it to him just before Christmas and he was elated.”