Snowboarding at the Winter Olympics down a course with jumps, beams and other obstacles. On July 11, 2011, the International Olympic Committee's Executive Board approved the addition of Ski and Snowboard Slopestyle to the Winter Olympics roster of events, effective in 2014. The decision was announced via press conference from the IOC's meeting in Durban, South Africa. A fifth event, parallel slalom, was added only for 2014. Big air was added for 2018. Six athletes have won at least two medals. Shaun White of the United States is the only triple gold medalist. Philipp Schoch of Switzerland and Seth Wescott of the United States are
Snowboarding at the Winter Olympics Snowboarding at the Winter Olympics Snowboarding is a sport at the Winter Olympic Games. It was first included in the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan. Snowboarding was one of five new sports or disciplines added to the Winter Olympic program between 1992 and 2002, and was the only one not to have been a previous medal or demonstration event. In 1998, four events, two for men and two for women, were held in two specialities: the giant slalom, a downhill event similar to giant slalom skiing; and the half-pipe, in which competitors perform tricks while going from one side Snowboarding Snowboarding Snowboarding is a recreational activity and Olympic and Paralympic sport that involves descending a snow-covered slope while standing on a snowboard attached to a rider's feet. The development of snowboarding was inspired by skateboarding, sledding, surfing and skiing. It was developed in the United States in the 1960s, became a Winter Olympic Sport at Nagano in 1998 and first featured in the Winter Paralympics at Sochi in 2014. Its popularity (as measured by equipment sales) in the United States peaked in 2007 and has been in a decline since. Modern snowboarding began in 1965 when Sherman Poppen, an engineer Peter Line be conducted. His footage is highly original and creative compared to other tricks of that time. Line is a multiple time competitor in the Winter X games, winning the Big Air Snowboarding event in 1997 and 1999, the Snowboarding Slopestyle event in 1999, and the Snowboarding Big-Air event in 2000. He is a columnist for "Snowboarder Magazine" and is known for standout video parts each year. Peter Line Peter Line is a professional snowboarder from Bellevue, Washington. He is a member of the Forum Snowboarding team and was the founder of the original Forum 8. The Forum 8 were: J. Winter Olympic Games North and South Korea and the ongoing Russian doping scandal. Despite tense relations, North Korea agreed to participate in the Games, enter with South Korea during the opening ceremony as a unified Korea, and field a unified team in women's ice hockey. Individual Russian athletes, who qualified and could demonstrate they had complied with the IOC's doping regulations, were given the option to compete neutrally in Pyeongchang as "Olympic Athletes from Russia" (OAR) but they were not allowed to compete under the Russian flag. The Games saw the addition of big air snowboarding, mass start speed skating, mixed doubles curling, U.S. Snowboarding qualifying series for fielding the U.S. Olympic snowboarding team. 1997 - U.S. Skiing changes name to U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association When U.S. Skiing became the official National Governing Body of snowboarding in 1997, the organization changed its name from U.S. Skiing to the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association. 1998 - Snowboarding debuts at the Olympic Games in Nagano, Japan Ross Powers, who is considered to be snowboarding's first child prodigy, and Shannon Dunn earned bronze medals in halfpipe for U.S. Snowboarding 2002 - U.S. men sweep Olympic halfpipe podium at Park City, Utah Recognized as the event that launched Poaching (snowboarding) the U.S. Forest Service, to determine how its own ski runs are operated. Along with Alta, there are over 100 other ski resorts that are also on land owned by the U.S. Forest Service. Even though snowboarding was accepted by the mainstream winter sports industry in the 1990s, and is now recognized as a Winter Olympic sport (debuting in 1998), ski areas adopted the sport at a much slower pace than the winter sports public. For many years, animosity existed between skiers and snowboarders, which led to an ongoing skier-vs-snowboarder feud. Early snowboards were banned from the slopes by park Snowboard racing is based on 2 runs combined time. (SG): Boarders competing in a Super G event travel through sets of gates spaced 30–40 meters apart, requiring plenty of courage and speed while testing the endurance of the racer at speeds of up to 100 km/h. This has not been a world cup event since 1999 at Mt. Bachelor, Oregon. (SBX): In snowboard cross, four snowboard racers start simultaneously atop an inclined course. The racers go over a series of features while trying to reach the finish line first. Snowboard cross became an Olympic sport in 2006. Team snowboard cross is a Timeline of United States inventions (1946–91) laser 1964 Liquid crystal display (dynamic scattering mode) 1964 SQUID 1964 Argon laser 1965 Adaptive equalizer (automatic) 1965 Snowboarding Snowboarding is a sport that involves descending a slope that is either partially or fully covered with snow on a snowboard attached to a rider's feet using a special boot set into a mounted binding. The development of snowboarding was inspired by skateboarding, surfing and skiing. The first snowboard, the Snurfer, was invented by Sherman Poppen in 1965. Snowboarding became a Winter Olympic Sport in 1998. 1965 Kevlar Kevlar is the registered trademark for a light, strong para-aramid synthetic fiber. Typically Icer Air Icer Air Icer Air, stylized as ICER AIR, was an urban big-air ski and snowboard event held in 2005 on Fillmore Street in San Francisco and at or near AT&T Park from 2006 through 2008. ICER founder Glen Griffin originally created the Icer Air event with Olympic gold medalist Jonny Moseley to promote ICER, a sports products company that developed a new type of aerosol spray-on ski and snowboard wax. The first event was originally scheduled for August 2005, but was delayed after neighborhood opposition. After the city granted the necessary permit, on September 29, 2005, over 15,000 people showed Snowboarding at the Winter Olympics of a semi-circular ditch to the other. Canadian Ross Rebagliati won the men's giant slalom and became the first athlete to win a gold medal in snowboarding. Rebagliati was briefly stripped of his medal by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) after testing positive for marijuana. However, the IOC's decision was reverted following an appeal from the Canadian Olympic Association. For the 2002 Winter Olympics, giant slalom was expanded to add head-to-head racing and was renamed parallel giant slalom. In 2006, a third event, the snowboard cross, was held for the first time. In this event, competitors race against each other U.S. Snowboarding in men’s halfpipe in 2002 and a best in the world performance of seven medals in 2006. "*The first U.S. Snowboarding Team was officially named in 1994, prior to the 1994-95 season in order to prepare for the 1998 Winter Olympic Games in Nagano, Japan, where the sport would make its Olympic debut, however the United States had participated in snowboarding World Cup competitions since the tour was created in 1988." 1965 - Invention of the Snurfer Snowboarding was born in 1965 when Sherman Poppen created the "Snurfer" by bracing a pair of skis together and riding sideways down his Snowboarding help of Mike Chantry, a snowboard instructor at Soda Springs. In 1985, the first World Cup was held in Zürs, Austria, further cementing snowboarding's recognition as an official international competitive sport. In 1990, the International Snowboard Federation (ISF) was founded to provide universal contest regulations. In addition, the United States of America Snowboard Association (USASA) provides instructing guidelines and runs snowboard competitions in the U.S. today, high-profile snowboarding events like the Winter X Games, Air & Style, US Open, Olympic Games and other events are broadcast worldwide. Many alpine resorts have terrain parks. At the 1998 Winter Olympic Games in Sébastien Toutant able to ride at my best and to put the tricks down. To be able to show up and to show the world what I can do is just awesome." The victory made Toutant the first men's big air champion in the Olympics as this was the debut of the event at the games. Sébastien Toutant Sébastien Toutant (born November 9, 1992) is a Canadian snowboarder. He is reigning Olympic champion in the men's big air snowboarding event which made its debut at those games. Toutant was twice the gold medal winner in slopestyle at the X Games in 2011 U.S. Snowboarding titles. 1993 - The International Ski Federation (FIS) votes to recognize snowboarding. At their June meeting, the FIS votes to recognize snowboarding and plans several events in 1994 with a full-fledged World Cup Tour to start in 1995. 1995 - First U.S. Snowboarding Team named Created as the snowboarding arm of the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association, U.S. Snowboarding created a national team to compete on the World Cup tour in preparation for the Olympic Games, where the sport was to debut in 1998. Former competitor Peter Foley was named head coach and remains the only head coach of U.S. Sports in the United States the league is still competing at a lower level than club teams established across the U.S. In 2015, the International Olympic Committee granted full recognition to the World Flying Disc Federation for flying disc sports including Ultimate. The development of snowboarding was inspired by skateboarding, sledding, surfing and skiing. It was developed in the United States in the 1960s, became a Winter Olympic Sport at Nagano in 1998 and first featured in the Winter Paralympics at Sochi in 2014. Australian rules football in the United States was first played in the country in 1996. The United States Australian Football League FIS Snowboarding World Championships 2005 Parallel Slalom finals took place on January 19. The finals took place on January 22. FIS Snowboarding World Championships 2005 The FIS Snowboarding World Championships 2005 took place between January 16 and January 22 in Whistler-Blackcomb, near Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The venues would be part of the 2010 Winter Olympics at Cypress Mountain. The Snowboard Cross finals took place on January 18. Parallel Giant Slalom finals took place on January 20. The Parallel Slalom finals took place on January 19. The finals took place on January 22. Big Air finals took place on January 21. The Snowboard Cross finals FIS Snowboard World Cup FIS Snowboard World Cup The FIS Snowboard World Cup is an annual snowboarding competition, arranged by the International Ski Federation (FIS) since 1994. Throughout the years they have come and gone different disciplines, and categories that grouped some of the disciplines. Currently disciplines contested in the World Cup are: "Parallel giant slalom" and "Parallel slalom" (grouped into Parallel category), "Halfpipe", "Big air" and "Slope style" (grouped into AFU category) and the discipline-category of Snowboard cross. Some of these disciplines have played discontinuously in time. The only discipline contested in every season of the World Cup is the Halfpipe (and from 1998 Winter Olympics 1998 Winter Olympics The 1998 Winter Olympics, officially the , and commonly known as Nagano 1998, was a winter multi-sport event celebrated from 7 to 22 February 1998 in Nagano, Japan. 72 nations and 2,176 participants contested in 7 sports and 68 events at 15 venues. The Games saw the introduction of women's ice hockey, curling and snowboarding. National Hockey League players were allowed to participate in the men's ice hockey. The host was selected on June 15, 1991, over Salt Lake City, Östersund, Jaca and Aosta. They were the third Olympic Games and second Winter Olympics to be held Jonny Moseley its policy to allow its athletes to participate in professional events, such as ESPN's X Games where he earned a silver medal in the Big Air event. Moseley was the first skier to medal in both the X-Games (silver) and the Olympics (Gold). In 2000, Moseley won the U.S. Freeskiing Open and in 2001 regained a spot in the U.S. Ski Team at the World Cup qualifications held at Sunday River, Maine. In 2002, Moseley competed but came in fourth place in the Olympic Games. In 2002, Moseley gave the commencement convocation address at UC Berkeley. The choice by the Mathieu Crépel the first ever French winner of a half pipe world title. In 2006 Crépel represented France at the Olympic Winter Games but failed to win a medal however later in the same year he became the first Ticket to Ride (TTR) World Snowboard Tour champion. In 2007, Mathieu Crépel became world champion at both big air and the half pipe at the World Championships in Arosa, Switzerland. During the big air he became the first ever person to land a switch backside 12 in competition. The Mathieu Crépel Invitational is a new annual event (inaugural meet February 2008) which will FIS Snowboarding World Championships 2005 FIS Snowboarding World Championships 2005 The FIS Snowboarding World Championships 2005 took place between January 16 and January 22 in Whistler-Blackcomb, near Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The venues would be part of the 2010 Winter Olympics at Cypress Mountain. The Snowboard Cross finals took place on January 18. Parallel Giant Slalom finals took place on January 20. The Parallel Slalom finals took place on January 19. The finals took place on January 22. Big Air finals took place on January 21. The Snowboard Cross finals took place on January 18. Parallel Giant Slalom finals took place on January 20. The Para-snowboarding classification to those used by the International Blind Sports Federation (IBSA) for other sports for visually impaired athletes. The sport widely called Adaptive Snowboarding held its first official competition at the 2000 USASA Nationals in Waterville Valley NH, USA. The USASA governed adaptive snowboarding competitions in North America through 2008, after which the World Snowboard Federation accepted international governance beginning in 2009. It is now practiced by hundreds of athletes around the world, and governed by the International Paralympic Committee (IPC). The IPC and the WSF signed a memorandum of understanding in July 2009 under which the WSF would continue to Figure skating February 15, 1961, the entire U.S. figure skating team and their coaches were killed in the crash of Sabena Flight 548 in Brussels, Belgium en route to the World Championships in Prague. This tragedy sent the U.S. skating program into a period of rebuilding. Meanwhile, the Soviet Union rose to become a dominant force in the sport, especially in the disciplines of pair skating and ice dance. At every Winter Olympics from 1964 until 2006, a Soviet or Russian pair won gold in pair skating, in what is often considered to be one of the longest winning streaks in modern Aleksandr Gorshkov (figure skater) unsure about their participation. During the first practice session, Gorshkov had trouble breathing and needed to be given oxygen – they withdrew from the event. In the Soviet Union, rumors circulated that Gorshkov had died on the flight to the United States and the chairman of the Soviet Sports Committee called him to check if he was still alive. Pakhomova/Gorshkov returned to competition the following season. Ice dancing debuted as an official Olympic sport at the 1976 Winter Olympics in Innsbruck, Austria, and Pakhomova/Gorshkov became the first Olympic champions in the discipline. They won their sixth World title in 1976 Bids for the 2012 Winter Youth Olympics grade for this edition may still be a very viable candidate for a future edition with a longer lead time. The schedule was announced in January, 2008. Innsbruck hosted the 1964 and 1976 Winter Olympics. AOC head Dr. Leo Wallner says the city is "predestined" to be the first host because of their experience, sport sites, and the spectacular Alps. Recent experience includes the Air & Style Snowboard Contest from 1994 to 1999 and 2008, the 2005 Men's World Ice Hockey Championships, and the 2005 Winter Universiade (with Seefeld). Innsbruck's Bergisel is expected to once again be the centerpiece of Para-snowboarding classification second for state and national competitions, and the third for international competitions. After initially rejecting the sport in August 2011, the International Paralympic Committee changed its mind and added Para-snowboarding to the Alpine Skiing programme on 2 May 2012. The President of the Sochi 2014 Olympic Organizing Committee, Dmitry Chernyshenko, welcomed the addition of the new sport, saying: The sport made its official Winter Paralympic debut in the 2014 Winter Paralympics in Sochi, Russia. There were men's and women's standing snowboard cross. Only events in the SB-LL class were offered. The events were run in a time-trial format (one rider Sébastien Toutant Sébastien Toutant Sébastien Toutant (born November 9, 1992) is a Canadian snowboarder. He is reigning Olympic champion in the men's big air snowboarding event which made its debut at those games. Toutant was twice the gold medal winner in slopestyle at the X Games in 2011 and 2013. He has won an additional two silver medals plus a bronze in slopestyle and big air events at the X Games bringing his total medals in the competition to five. Starting snowboarding at age nine, Toutant got into the sport when he broke his skis and borrowed his brother's old snowboard. Toutant's Vic Wild Vic Wild Victor Ivan "Vic" Wild (; born August 23, 1986) is an American-born Russian snowboarder. Wild won a bronze medal in the parallel giant slalom at the 2013 FIS Snowboarding World Championships and gold medals in the parallel slalom and parallel giant slalom at 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, which made him the first snowboarder ever to win two medals at the same Winter Games. Wild originally competed for the United States, but after the 2010 Winter Olympics, the United States Ski and Snowboard Association shut down its alpine snowboarding program. According to a 2014 story by Jeff Passan Winter Olympic Games the Summer and Winter Games on separate four-year cycles in alternating even-numbered years, the next Winter Olympics after 1992 was in 1994. The Winter Games have evolved since their inception. Sports and disciplines have been added and some of them, such as Alpine skiing, luge, short track speed skating, freestyle skiing, skeleton, and snowboarding, have earned a permanent spot on the Olympic programme. Some others, including curling and bobsleigh, have been discontinued and later reintroduced; others have been permanently discontinued, such as military patrol, though the modern Winter Olympic sport of biathlon is descended from it. Still others, such as Alpine skiing at the Winter Olympics were recently set in 2014: These records continue: Alpine skiing at the Winter Olympics Alpine skiing has been contested at every Winter Olympics since 1936, when a combined event was held in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany. From 1948 through 1980, the Winter Olympics also served as the World Championships in Olympic years, with separate competitions held in even-numbered non-Olympic years. During this period, the Olympic medalists received an additional medal of the same metal from the International Ski Federation (FIS). The giant slalom was introduced at the 1950 World Championships and at the Olympics in 1952; both programs dropped the combined event, Freestyle skiing Freestyle skiing Freestyle skiing is a skiing discipline comprising aerials, moguls, cross, half-pipe and slopestyle as part of the Winter Olympics. It can consist of a skier performing aerial flips and spins, and can include skiers sliding rails and boxes on their skis. It is also commonly referred to as freeskiing, jibbing, as well as many other names around the world. Ski acrobatics have been practiced since the 1930s. Aerial skiing was popularized in the 1950s by Olympic gold medalist Stein Eriksen. Early US competitions were held in the mid-1960s. The International Ski Federation (FIS) recognized freestyle skiing as a FIS Snowboarding World Championships 2011 FIS Snowboarding World Championships 2011 The FIS Snowboarding World Championships 2011 was an international snowboarding competition held from January 14, 2011 to January 22 in La Molina and Barcelona (Catalonia, Spain) by the FIS Snowboarding World Championship, All the competitions were held in La Molina, except the big air competition, which was held in Barcelona. The TV broadcast rights were sold to Eurosport in Europe, CBC in Canada, Sky A in Japan, and ORF was given the rights to broadcast in Austria. The world championships began with the big air competition at the Palau Sant Jordi arena in Barcelona. A Skiing in New South Wales skiing, as well as snowboarding and moguls competitions in Australia during the month of August. Australian skiers competed in the Winter Olympics for the first time in Oslo, 1952. Australian skiers have competed in all subsequent Winter Olympic Games and won medals at every Games since 1998. The sport of snowboarding is also popular in the Australian skifields and Australia has been represented at the Olympics in this sport ever since it debuted at Nagano in 1998. Torah Bright, of the Snowy Mountains town of Cooma, New South Wales, won gold for Australia at the Vancouver Olympics in 2010 in Terje Håkonsen a goal - he felt there was too little time for freeriding and too much focus on competitions. After Håkonsen had featured in a number of different snowboarding films, Volcom produced a biographical film in 1996 about Håkonsen entitled Subjekt Haakonsen. This was followed up with The Haakonsen faktor in 1999. In 2005, he featured in the documentary First Descent, in which he was the first person to ever snowboard down peak 7601 in Alaska. When halfpipe was introduced as an Olympic event during the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Håkonsen boycotted the qualifiers. Håkonsen, as well as many other Winter Olympic Games with the Olympic Charter defining its structure and authority. The original five Winter Olympics sports (broken into nine disciplines) were bobsleigh, curling, ice hockey, Nordic skiing (consisting of the disciplines military patrol, cross-country skiing, Nordic combined, and ski jumping), and skating (consisting of the disciplines figure skating and speed skating). The Games were held every four years from 1924 to 1936, interrupted in 1940 and 1944 by World War II, and resumed in 1948. Until 1992 the Winter and Summer Olympic Games were held in the same years, but in accordance with a 1986 decision by the IOC to place Snowboarding Nagano, Japan, Snowboarding became an official Olympic event. France's Karine Ruby was the first ever to win an Olympic gold medal for Woman's Snowboarding at the 1998 Olympics, while Canadian Ross Rebagliati was the first ever to win an Olympic gold medal for Men's Snowboarding. Initially, ski areas adopted the sport at a much slower pace than the winter sports public. Indeed, for many years, there was animosity between skiers and snowboarders, which led to an ongoing skier vs snowboarder feud. Early snowboards were banned from the slopes by park officials. For several years snowboarders would have to take a 1960 Winter Olympics only time in Winter Olympic history that the bobsled events were not held. The chairman of the Pageantry Committee was Walt Disney, who was responsible for producing both the opening and closing ceremonies. He organized an opening that included 5,000 entertainers, the release of 2,000 pigeons, and a military gun salute of eight shots, one for each of the previous Winter Olympic Games. The opening ceremonies were held on February 18, 1960, at Blyth Arena in the midst of a blizzard. The heavy snow fall caused traffic problems that delayed the ceremony by an hour. The festivities began with a 1990 Winter Pan American Games the Olympic Oath. Weather was unseasonably warm and again there was little snow, so only three Alpine Skiing events – the Slalom, Giant Slalom, and Super G were staged. The United States and Canada won all 18 medals. 1990 Winter Pan American Games The 1990 Winter Pan American Games were held in Las Leñas, Argentina, from September 16 to September 22, 1990. They were the only Winter Pan American Games. 97 athletes from 8 countries participated in 1 sport (alpine skiing). All sporting events took place at the Las Leñas Ski resort in Mendoza Province. In 1988, members of PASO Biathlon at the Winter Olympic Games in 1924, and then demonstrated in 1928, 1936, and 1948, but did not regain Olympic recognition then because the small number of competing countries disagreed on the rules. During the mid-1950s, however, the biathlon was introduced into the Soviet and Swedish winter sport circuits and was widely enjoyed by the public. This newfound popularity aided the effort of having the biathlon gain entry into the Winter Olympics. The first Biathlon World Championship was held in 1958 in Austria, and in 1960 the sport was finally included in the Olympic Games. At Albertville in 1992, women Windsurfing on a non-competitive basis. Organised competition does take place at all levels across the world, including in the Olympics. Typical formats for competitive windsurfing include Formula Windsurfing, speed sailing, slalom, course racing, wave sailing, superX, and freestyle. The boom of the 1980s led windsurfing to be recognized as an Olympic sport in 1984. However, windsurfing's popularity saw a sharp decline in the mid-1990s, thanks to licensing battles, and equipment becoming more specialized and requiring more expertise to sail. The sport experienced a modest revival, as new beginner-friendly designs became available. Further pressure came as a proportion of avid windsurfers took Snowboarding Burton would become the biggest snowboarding company in the business. In the early 1980s, Aleksey Ostatnigrosh and Alexei Melnikov, two Snurfers from the Soviet Union, patented design changes to the Snurfer to allow jumping by attaching a bungee cord, a single footed binding to the Snurfer tail, and a two-foot binding design for improved control. The first competitions to offer prize money were the National Snurfing Championship, held at Muskegon State Park in Muskegon Michigan. In 1979, Jake Burton Carpenter, came from Vermont to compete with a snowboard of his own design. There were protests about Jake entering with a International Snowboard Federation to sharpen their skills at an early age on their way to joining the professional ranks. The ISF set the standard for snowboarding competition, which contributed to the development of it as an Olympic sport in the 1998 Winter Olympics. In a controversial move, the International Olympic Committee recognized the International Ski Federation (FIS) as the sport's official governing body. Three-time world champion Terje Håkonsen boycotted the Olympics as a result of the FIS being appointed to oversee the officiating. Other riders followed in Håkonsen's footsteps and concluded FIS rules to be inappropriate for snowboarding. The FIS has maintained its Winter Olympic Games before the opening ceremonies. Taiwan returned to Olympic competition at the 1984 Winter Games in Sarajevo as Chinese Taipei. The country agreed to compete under a flag bearing the emblem of their National Olympic Committee and to play the anthem of their National Olympic Committee should one of their athletes win a gold medal. The agreement remains in place to this day. The Olympic Charter limits winter sports to "those ... which are practised on snow or ice." Since 1992 a number of new sports have been added to the Olympic programme; which include short track speed skating, snowboarding, freestyle U.S. Snowboarding time riders from all over the country compete against each other and draws media coverage from the likes of Sports Illustrated, NBC Today, and Good Morning America. 1983 - Jake Burton Carpenter organizes the National Snowboarding Championships Held in the spring at Snow Valley, Vermont, the event would eventually evolve into the US Open. Later that spring Tom Sims held the inaugural World Snowboarding Championships at Soda Springs Ski Bowl in the Lake Tahoe area. It was the first contest to have a halfpipe event. 1987 - North American Snowboard Association formed Paul Alden and a collection of riders and Steve Podborski Fame in 1986 and Canadian Sport Hall of Fame in 1987. In 2006, Podborski was inducted into the Ontario Sport Hall of Fame and his former team the Crazy Canucks were honoured on Canada's Walk of Fame. Podborski was on the bid committee for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, responsible for international relations; he also worked as a sports newscaster in Salt Lake City. He worked as a commentator for American television for three Winter Olympics (2002-2010). He covered freestyle skiing for NBC in 2006 and 2002, and snowboarding for Olympics on CBS in 1998. Podborski also covered the Ueli Kestenholz Ueli Kestenholz Ueli Kestenholz (born 10 May 1975) is a Swiss snowboarder and Speedriding pioneer. Kestenholz was Snowboard World Champion in 2000 and 2001. He won the first ever Olympic Medal in Snowboarding: Bronze at the 1998 Winter Olympics (Giant Slalom). He's a two times Gold medalist/Winner at the Winter X-Games in Boardercross/BoarderX. After his third Olympic Games of Torino 2006, Ueli quit the Worldcup circuit to focus 100% on Freeriding. Besides Freeriding on a Snowboard, he became one of the pioneers of Speedriding/Speedflying in Switzerland. Together with Mathias Roten they created Playgravity, an award winning multisport-movie, showing their amazing Icer Air forced to downsize then shut down completely after losing its main sponsorship funding during the 2008 financial crisis. Winners: C.R. Johnson - ski, J.J. Thomas - snowboard Winners: T.J. Schiller - ski, Travis Rice - snowboard Winners: Jon Olsson - ski, Travis Rice - snowboard Icer Air Icer Air, stylized as ICER AIR, was an urban big-air ski and snowboard event held in 2005 on Fillmore Street in San Francisco and at or near AT&T Park from 2006 through 2008. ICER founder Glen Griffin originally created the Icer Air event with Olympic gold medalist Jonny Moseley to promote ICER, a Air & Style Air & Style The Air & Style is a European snowboard contest first held in Innsbruck, Austria in 1994 and now held annually. Charly Weger and his snowboard photographer friend Andrew Hourmont first started the Air & Style Contest in Innsbruck. They only expected some hundred spectators but more than a few thousand showed up to see a single Straight Jump from each rider. From there on, it developed into one of the most influential snowboard challenges today. Until 1999, the sponsorship exploded and over 45,000 visitors witnessed the last Air & Style in Innsbruck, when six people died after U.S. Ski & Snowboard Ski & Snowboard is one of the only Olympic sports associations in America to support a full-time standing national team in every sport. Teams are nominated each spring or summer based on results. Teams for FIS World Championships (held every odd year) and Olympic Winter Games (held every four years) are selected by specific criteria and named for those individual events. Recently, U.S. Ski & Snowboard adopted virtual reality technology to better prepare its olympic team for the Pyeongchang games. <red> In 1904, a meeting was held in Ishpeming, Michigan, to discuss formation of a national ski association, but it 1932 Winter Olympics Winter Games. William May Garland, president of the California X Olympiad Association, wanted the games to take place in Wrightwood and Big Pines, California. The world's largest ski jump at the time was constructed in Big Pines for the event, but the games were ultimately awarded to Lake Placid. Medals were awarded in 14 events contested in 4 sports (7 disciplines). The Games also included events in three demonstration sports. These were the last Winter Olympics without alpine skiing, which was added in 1936. Alpine skiing held its 1932 World Championships during the Olympics, February 4–6 in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy. Pakistan at the Olympics Pakistan at the Olympics Pakistan first participated at the Olympic Games in 1948 in London, and has sent athletes to compete in every Summer Olympic Games since then, except when they participated in the American-led boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics in Soviet Union. Pakistan's first ever participation in the Winter Olympic Games was at the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics when Mohammad Abbas became Pakistan's first athlete to qualify in the Alpine Skiing (Giant Slalom) category. Pakistani athletes have won a total of ten medals, all in the Summer Olympics with eight of those from men's field hockey. In 1996 Demonstration sport fact, used to promote the Paralympic Games. Disabled events in alpine and Nordic skiing (1988 only) were also held as demonstration sports at the 1984 and 1988 Winter Olympics. Here is the list of demonstration sports played at the Summer Olympic Games: Here is the list of demonstration sports played at the Winter Olympic Games: Demonstration sport A demonstration sport is a sport which is played to promote it, most commonly during the Olympic Games, but also at other sporting events. Demonstration sports were officially introduced in 1912 Summer Olympics, when Sweden decided to include glima, traditional Icelandic wrestling, in Snowboard racing resulting in even higher speeds. This event is still staged at Continental Cup and Regional level, but the last giant slalom world cup was held in 2000 at Mt. Ste Anne, Quebec, Canada, with Jasey-Jay Anderson (CAN) and Karine Ruby (FRA)] winning. (PSL): Parallel slalom debuted at the Olympics in 2014 in Sochi, Russia. Boarders race downhill through sets of gates that force extremely tight and quick turns (spaced 8–15 meters apart), requiring plenty of technical skill while racing against an opponent in the other course. (TS): The triple slalom is a concept event that has been tested as a Ted Robinson (sportscaster) Olympics). His Summer Olympic assignments began with baseball at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, where the U.S. baseball team upset Cuba for the gold medal, and diving and canoeing at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, both for NBC. His Winter Olympics assignments began with short track speed skating, freestyle skiing, and the giant slalom snowboarding event at the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano for CBS, and short track at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin and 2010 Winter Olympics, this time for NBC. Robinson called Apolo Ohno's eight short track Olympic 2001 Special Olympics World Winter Games people worked as volunteers for the Games. This event is set to be the largest sporting event held in the history of Alaska. 2001 Special Olympics World Winter Games 2001 Special Olympics World Winter Games was the 7th edition of the Winter Special Olympics World Games.It is a multi-sporting event that was held from March 4 2001 to March 11 2001.It was hosted by Anchorage, Alaska which is the State of United States. Cross Country Skiing, Alpine Skiing, Speed Skating, Floor Hockey, Snowshoeing and Snowboarding were the sporting events that took place at the Winter Special Olympics.Above 2750 athletes and Olympic Oval distribute the load of the roof equally to each of the 28 exterior support beams. Construction was completed by the end of the summer of 1987, officially opening in September 1987, five months before the Olympics. It was during the speed skating events of the Olympic Winter Games in 1988 that The Oval became known as ""the fastest ice on Earth,"" as world records were set in seven events (Men's 500 m, 1500 m, 10,000 m, and Women's 500 m, 1000 m, 3000 m, 5000 m), and Olympic records were set in the other three events (Men's 1500 m, 5000 Hart Skis as a demonstration event at the 1988 Calgary Games. Mogul skiing became part of the official program for the Albertville Games in 1992—and aerials were added in 1994 during the Lillehammer Games. During the 1970s, Billy Kidd, Olympic medal winner, joined the company as an advisor and designer. In 1971, Kidd won the first World-Wide Championship Professionals wearing skis made by Hart. Hart also secured endorsements of ‘70s ski superstars like Suzy Chaffee, Hank Kashiwa and many others. In 1984, the company introduced “The Comp,” which was the first ski to be made with a wood okume and honeycomb structure Polartec Big Air at Fenway Polartec Big Air at Fenway Polartec Big Air At Fenway is a big air snowboarding and skiing competition that took place on February 11-12, 2016. The spectacle was held at Fenway Park in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. This is the first such event held at Fenway Park and was part of the U.S. Grand Prix Tour and the International Ski Federation's World Tour. A 25,000 person audience was expected over the course of the two days.The Winter clothing brand, Polartec, chose to sign on as the title sponsor. Polartec's North American Marketing Manager, Darren Jorsey, stated, "We want to continue to Matt Horne (snowboarder) with the Canadian Snowboard Team. In 2016 he founded Beep For Service, a startup that lets users in Canada book car repair using a mobile app. Matt Horne (snowboarder) Matt Horne (born March 6, 1978) is a Canadian snowboarder, Over his ten-year snowboarding career, he competed in over 125 race events in Giant Slalom, Parallel Slalom, Parallel Giant Slalom and Snowboard cross. Born in Hamilton, Ontario, Matt Horne’s snowboarding career with the Canadian National Snowboard Team officially began in March 1998 at the 1997–1998 National Championship in Mont-Tremblant, Quebec. It continued through until his last race at the 2007 Nor-Am Alpine skiing at the Winter Olympics Alpine skiing at the Winter Olympics Alpine skiing has been contested at every Winter Olympics since 1936, when a combined event was held in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany. From 1948 through 1980, the Winter Olympics also served as the World Championships in Olympic years, with separate competitions held in even-numbered non-Olympic years. During this period, the Olympic medalists received an additional medal of the same metal from the International Ski Federation (FIS). The giant slalom was introduced at the 1950 World Championships and at the Olympics in 1952; both programs dropped the combined event, but it returned in 1954 at the World Alpine skiing at the 1948 Winter Olympics Alpine skiing at the 1948 Winter Olympics At the 1948 Winter Olympics in St. Moritz, Switzerland, the six alpine skiing events were held on Piz Nair from Monday, 2 February to Thursday, 5 February 1948. After these games, the giant slalom was added and the combined event was dropped as an Olympic medal event for four decades, until 1988. From 1956 through 1980, the combined continued as an FIS medal event for the concurrent World Championships, using the results from three events, conducted as a "paper race." Henri Oreiller of France earned a medal in all three events, with two Ståle Sandbech at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, becoming the youngest Norwegian to go to the Olympics since Sonja Henie represented Norway at the 1928 Winter Olympics 82 years earlier. Sandbech won the World Snowboarding Tour in freestyle in 2011–12. Sandbech won a bronze medal in Big Air at the 2013 Winter X Games, where his countryman Torstein Horgmo won gold. Four Norwegians qualified for the Big Air final in the 2014 games, with Sandbech placing the highest and winning the bronze medal. The next day, he won another bronze medal in slopestyle. At the 2014 Winter Olympics, Sandbech participated in FIS Freestyle Ski and Snowboarding World Championships 2015 parallel giant slalom, big air and snowboard cross. A total of 40 countries entered athletes. For the first time ever the championships were available for live viewing on YouTube for free of charge, in countries where broadcasting agreements were not in place. FIS Freestyle Ski and Snowboarding World Championships 2015 The 2015 FIS Freestyle Ski and Snowboarding World Championships were held in Kreischberg, Austria from January 15–25, 2015. In 2014, the FIS (International Ski Federation) decided to merge the FIS Freestyle World Ski Championships with the FIS Snowboarding World Championships starting with these championships. The Austrian municipality of Kreischberg was Snowboard cross at the Turin Olympic Games. It was also included in subsequent Winter Olympics. All participants need a snowboard to compete. The snowboard should be fairly stiff (but not a hard board). A mouth guard, though not always required, is recommended. Since participants are competing side-by-side tight clothing is essential to ensure competitors are not getting caught on each other's gear. As competition increases in intensity some riders choose to wear body armour to ensure safety when competing at high speeds. Boardercross had been an event in every X-Games since their start in 1997. However, it was dropped after the 2012 X Games compete in the Winter X snowboard superpipe event, just weeks before the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. Also in 2002, ESPN announced the establishment of the X Games Global Championship. The Global Championship featured two distinct venues hosting competitions in summer and winter action sports simultaneously. It consisted of six teams of the world's top athletes, grouped together by their region of origin, to compete in the four-day event. The winter sports were held in Whistler Blackcomb Resort in British Columbia, and the events included snowboarding and skiing. The Winter X Games are held in January or February (usually Jamie Anderson (snowboarder) World Tour. Jamie won an Olympic gold medal, the first ever offered in slopestyle, at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. Jamie won her second Olympic gold medal at the Olympic games in PyeongChang, South Korea. She also won a silver in the big air event. This was the second time slopestyle had been offered in the Olympics, making it so Jamie has won both gold medals in the slopestyle in Olympic history, and making her the first female snowboarder to win more than one Olympic gold medal. In 2015, Anderson competed on the seventh season of "The Celebrity International Snowboard Federation control over the Olympics, giving credence to the position that snowboarding is a discipline of skiing and not its own, individual sport. Although the ISF continued to represent snowboarding on an international level, it began to lose influence, sponsors and finances to the FIS, and ceased operations on June 22 2002. International Snowboard Federation The International Snowboarding Federation was a body organised to run snowboarding competition. Following the collapse of the National Association of Professional Snowboarders in 1990, five nations and 120 racers established the International Snowboarding Federation (ISF) with the goal of keeping the officiating by riders and for Karlos Kirby on his way to competing in two Winter Olympics – Albertville in 1992 and Lillehammer in 1994. Once retired from competing Kirby became an advocate for other U.S. Olympic athletes as a member of the United States Olympic Committee's Athletes Advisory Committee, the United States Olympic Committee's Board of Directors and an Executive Committee member of the Salt Lake City Olympic Organizing Committee’s Board of Directors. Some of Kirby's leading initiatives included: getting women's bobsled recognized as an official Olympic sport in 2002, establishing educational opportunities for Olympic and Paralympic level athlete, and financial support of top ten World Championship/Olympic Snowboarding at the 2002 Winter Olympics – Men's halfpipe accordingly. The following is a table detailing the results of the qualification and finals runs of the competing snowboarders. Snowboarding at the 2002 Winter Olympics – Men's halfpipe The men's halfpipe event in snowboarding at the 2002 Winter Olympics was held in Park City, United States. The competition took place on 11 February 2002. The American sweep of the medal podium was the first for that country since the 1956 Winter Olympics, when they won all three medals in the men's singles in figure skating. The halfpipe event for men took place on 11 February 2002, both the qualification rounds Speed skating at the Winter Olympics Speed skating at the Winter Olympics Speed skating has been featured as a sport in the Winter Olympics since the first winter games in 1924. Women's events were added to the Olympic program for the first time in 1960. The governing body for speed skating, the International Skating Union (ISU), was included in the list of recognized federations when the International Olympic Committee was founded, but was first discussed seriously for the 1908 Summer Olympics in London. No speed skating events were contested, although figure skating – also governed by the ISU – was on the programme. The preliminary calendar Anna Gasser Anna Gasser Anna Gasser (born 16 August 1991) is an Austrian snowboarder, competing in slopestyle and big air. She lives in Millstatt. Gasser qualified for the 2014 Winter Olympics and showed the best result in the qualification round, directly qualifying for the final. In 2017 Gasser won Gold in the Big Air event at the Snowboard World Championships in Spain. Gasser also had a successful 2017 X Games performance winning Gold in Slopestyle and Bronze in Big Air in Hafjell, and Silver for Big Air in Aspen. Anna Gasser started to compete in snowboarding in the 2010/2011 season. Before competing 2015 New Zealand Winter Games and this will most likely serve as an important testing event for the sport. Freestyle Skiing will feature big air (or aerials) as well as halfpipe and slopestyle. The halfpipe and slopestyle will both be a part of the 2016 Freestyle Skiing World Cup. All events will feature both a male and female version for a total of 6 events. Snowboarding will include big air, halfpipe, and slopestyle. Big air was also recently added onto the Winter Olympic Program, so this will likely serve as an important test event. The halfpipe and slopestyle events are part of the 2016 Snowboarding Biathlon in 1978 with the mechanical self-indicating targets making their debut at the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid. In 1948, the (UIPMB) was founded, to standardise the rules for the biathlon and the modern pentathlon. In 1993, the biathlon branch of the UIPMB created the International Biathlon Union (IBU), which officially separated from the UIPMB in 1998. Presidents of the UIPMB/IBU: The following articles list major international biathlon events and medalists. Contrary to the Olympics and World Championships (BWCH), the World Cup (BWC) is an entire winter season of (mostly) weekly races, where the medalists are those with the highest 1976 Summer Olympics opening of the Games of the XXI Olympiad, the first Olympics held in Canada (Calgary would later host the 1988 Olympic Winter Games, and Vancouver the 2010 Olympic Winter Games). Following an air show by the Canadian Forces Air Command's Snowbirds aerobatic flight demonstration squadron in the sunny skies above the stadium, the ceremony officially began at 3:00 pm with a trumpet fanfare and the arrival of Elizabeth II, as Queen of Canada. The Queen was accompanied by Michael Morris, Lord Killanin, President of the International Olympic Committee, and was greeted to an orchestral rendition of 'O Canada', an arrangement Brazil at the 1998 Winter Olympics Brazil at the 1998 Winter Olympics Brazil sent a delegation to compete at the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan from 7–22 February 1998. The delegation consisted of a single athlete Marcelo Apovian, who competed in alpine skiing. Making his second Olympic appearance, he finished his only event, the men's super-G in 37th place, last among those who finished the race. The Brazilian Olympic Committee was recognized by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) on 1 January 1935, 21 years after its creation. Brazil first joined Olympic Competition at the 1900 Summer Olympics, and made their first Winter Olympics appearance in Snowboarding at the 2006 Red Bull Gap Session. The half-pipe is a semi-circular ditch dug into the mountain or purpose-built ramp made up of snow, with walls between 8 and . Competitors perform tricks while going from one side to the other and while in the air above the sides of the pipe. Boardercross, also known as "Boarder X" and "Snowboard X", is a very popular but relatively recent winter sport, starting in the 1980s and earning its place as an official Winter Olympic sport in the 2006 Turin games. In Boardercross, several riders (usually 4 to 6) race down a Venues of the 1984 Winter Olympics construction for new and existing facilities took place between 1979 and 1983 though a majority of the venues were built completely by 1981. Yugoslavia hosted the World Ice Hockey Championships in 1966 though those championships took place in Ljubljana (now in Slovenia). Sarajevo had its first FIS Alpine Skiing World Cup event in 1975 with a women's giant slalom event. At the Zetra Ice Rink during practice for the ice dance event the morning before the free dance final, Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean of Great Britain arrived early to prepare. At the end of their routine, they were met Luge at the Winter Olympics Luge at the Winter Olympics Luge is a winter sport featured at the Winter Olympic Games where a competitor or two-person team rides a flat sled while lying supine (face up) and feet first. The sport is usually contested on a specially designed ice track that allows gravity to increase the sled's speed. The winner normally completes the route with the fastest overall time. It was first contested at the 1964 Winter Olympics, with both men's and women's events and a doubles event. Doubles is technically considered an open event since 1994, but only men have competed in it. German Gjermund Bråten Gjermund Bråten Gjermund Bråten (born 23 October 1990, Drammen) is a Norwegian snowboarder who competes in slopestyle and big air. Bråten qualified for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. On February 6, 2014 in the qualification event Bråten finished the fourth in his heat and thereby qualified directly to the final. In the final, he was ranked twelfth. His best World Cup result in slopestyle before the 2014 Olympics was the seventh-place finish in Sierra Nevada on March 26, 2013. Before 2011, Bråten also achieved three World Cup podium finishes (one second place and two third places) in big Snowboarding at the 2002 Winter Olympics – Men's parallel giant slalom the second run advances. Snowboarding at the 2002 Winter Olympics – Men's parallel giant slalom The men's parallel giant slalom event in snowboarding at the 2002 Winter Olympics was held in Park City, United States. The qualification runs were held on 14 February and the final rounds on 15 February. The top 16 racers, based on their qualification time, advanced to the elimination rounds. In the elimination round, each head-to-head contest consists of two runs. If one competitor wins both runs, that competitor advances. If the runs are split, the racer with the overall fastest time advances. "*" In a 1964 Winter Olympics 1956 to 1964. These are the top ten nations that won medals at these Games: Two fatal events before the 1964 Winter Olympics affected the outcome and mood of the Games: Notes Citations 1964 Winter Olympics The 1964 Winter Olympics, officially known as the IX Olympic Winter Games (French: Les "IXes Jeux olympiques d'hiver") (German: "Olympische Winterspiele 1964"), was a winter multi-sport event which was celebrated in Innsbruck, Austria, from January 29 to February 9, 1964. The Games included 1091 athletes from 36 nations, and the Olympic Torch was carried by Joseph Rieder, a former alpine skier who had participated Winter Olympic Games Note 3. The IOC's website now treats Men's Military Patrol at the 1924 Games as an event within the sport of Biathlon. Demonstration sports have historically provided a venue for host countries to attract publicity to locally popular sports by having a competition without granting medals. Demonstration sports were discontinued after 1992. Military patrol, a precursor to the biathlon, was a medal sport in 1924 and was demonstrated in 1928, 1936 and 1948, becoming an official sport in 1960. The special figures figure skating event was only contested at the 1908 Summer Olympics. Bandy (Russian hockey) is a sport popular Olympic Games Athens. These Games were, but are not now, officially recognised by the IOC and no Intercalated Games have been held since. The Games attracted a broad international field of participants and generated great public interest. This marked the beginning of a rise in both the popularity and the size of the Olympics. The Winter Olympics was created to feature snow and ice sports that were logistically impossible to hold during the Summer Games. Figure skating (in 1908 and 1920) and ice hockey (in 1920) were featured as Olympic events at the Summer Olympics. The IOC desired to expand this list Zoi Sadowski-Synnott Pyeongchang, South Korea. She won the bronze medal in the women's big air, becoming only the second New Zealander to win a Winter Olympic medal, behind Annelise Coberger who won silver in the women's slalom at the 1992 Winter Olympics. Her big air qualifying saw her become the first woman to successfully land a switch backside 900 (i.e. riding in unnatural stance and performing 2.5 rotations in the backside direction) in competition. She also competed in the women's slopestyle, finishing in 13th place. At age 16 years 353 days, Sadowski-Synnott briefly became New Zealand's youngest ever Olympic medallist, breaking the International figure skating won Switzerland's first World men's title. Stéphane Lambiel became a two-time World champion (2005–06). Davos (1899, 1900, 1910, 1927, 1948, 1953, 1966), Zurich (1933), Geneva (1968, 1986), and Lausanne (1997) have hosted the World Championships. St. Moritz hosted the Olympics in 1928 and 1948. Ukrainian skaters competed for the Soviet Union for much of the 20th century. This ended after the December 1991 referendum, in which every oblast approved Ukraine's declaration of independence. In the second half of the 1991–92 season, Ukrainian skaters represented the Commonwealth of Independent States (at the 1992 Europeans and 1992 Worlds), and the Unified Team Peter Graves (announcer) with the New England Mountain Bike Championships at Mount Snow, Vermont in 1988. He was one of the announcers for the first UCI World Mountain Championships in 1991 in Durango, Colorado. He has been the stadium announcer for nearly every World Mountain Bike Championship since 1991. In addition to working with ABC Sports and ESPN for the 1980, 1984 and 1988 Olympic Winter Games, he worked as a stadium announcer and producer. He worked as the stadium announcer for the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney for mountain biking. At the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City, he was an associate Maëlle Ricker in snowboarding at the Winter Olympics, despite the fact that Snowboarding was not an Olympic sport at the time. She first competed in the FIS Snowboard World Cup during the 1996–97 season, twice standing on the podium in her rookie season. She competed at her first Olympics in 1998 in Nagano where only parallel giant slalom and halfpipe were Olympic snowboard events. Ricker competed in the halfpipe event placing fifth. After Nagano, Ricker began competing in multiple snowboard disciplines, competing in both the halfpipe and in the newer sport of boarder cross. She won her first World Cup gold in Ski jumping judges. All major ski jumping competitions are organized by the International Ski Federation. The large hill ski jumping event was included at the Winter Olympic Games for the first time in 1924, and has been contested at every Winter Olympics since then. The normal hill event was added in 1964. Since 1992, the normal hill event is contested at the K-90 size hill; previously, it was contested at the K-60 hill. Women's debuted at the Winter Olympics in 2014. The FIS Ski Jumping World Cup has been contested since the 1979–80 season. It runs between November and March every season, Jamie Anderson (snowboarder) career wins, Jamie has been giving back to the snowboarding community through participation in the High Cascade Snowboard Camp. She has hosted a Signature Session™ at High Cascade in 2009–2012 and is scheduled to host another Signature Session™ camp in 2014. Anderson began snowboarding in 2000, when she received a hand-me-down snowboard at the age of nine, and qualified for the 2004 Winter X Games just four years later. In 2005, she took home a bronze, becoming the youngest female medalist in the competition at age 15. Through the Jamie Anderson Foundation established in 2013, she has provided more than International figure skating Dean won the 1984 Winter Olympics. London (1898, 1902, 1929, 1950), Manchester (1912, 1924), and Birmingham (1995) have hosted the World Championships. In August 2000, Sport England decided that the National Ice Skating Association would no longer receive £400,000 annually from lottery funds, citing poor performance. In 1924, Beatrix Loughran became the first U.S. skater to stand on the World ladies' podium, winning the bronze medal. She also won silver at the 1924 Winter Olympics. The first ISU Championships held in the United States were the 1930 World Championships in New York City. Lake Placid, New York hosted the 1932 Kristi Leskinen second in the US Wakeboard Nationals and fourth at the World Championship. In 2000, while attending the US Open, she spotted some pros having a practice session on a rail. It was the freedom she always looked for in skiing. She realized that freeskiing is more challenging than wakeboarding so she chose a career on the snow. In her first US Open, Leskinen was the only women doing the Big Air event and one of the handful of women participating on the Superpipe. By 2004, the sport had grown and the US Open had 40 athletes participating in the Superpipe, Faye Gulini Her first snowboard cross event was at age 10 in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. At age 14, she decided to pursue her dream of becoming a professional snowboarder. Gulini moved from her house and her family in Salt Lake City, Utah, to Vail, Colorado where she attended the Vail Ski and Snowboard Academy. Gulini debuted on FIS races on December 15, 2006 in the halfpipe discipline at age 14. The race was located in Breckenridge, Colorado. After many good performances, Gulini won her first FIS event on January 27, 2008 in the slopestyle discipline. The race was held in Park City, Pakistan at the 2010 Winter Olympics Pakistan at the 2010 Winter Olympics Pakistan competed in the Winter Olympic Games for the first time at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Canada. Pakistani skier Muhammad Abbas raced in the men's giant slalom, placing 79th. Abbas was also the country's flag bearer in the opening and closing ceremonies. The first ski resort in Pakistan was opened in 1958, in the Naltar Valley. It was originally for air force pilots to train, but later opened up to civilians. The Ski Federation of Pakistan was founded in 1990. The 2010 Olympic Games was Pakistan's debut at the Winter Olympics. They Pete Seibert was voted down, funding rejected in November 1972, and the games returned to Innsbruck, Austria, which had hosted the 1964 Winter Olympics. Seibert led a partnership which bought Snow Basin, near Ogden, Utah, in 1978, but ran into financial difficulty in 1984. The area was sold that October to Earl Holding, owner of Sun Valley in Idaho. Snowbasin was the venue for the alpine speed events of the 2002 Winter Olympics. Pete's Bowl in Vail's Blue Sky Basin, and the Pete's Express lift, was named for Seibert when the second phase of the expansion area opened in December 2000. Seibert Sochi International Airport Sochi International Airport was the main gateway during the 22nd Olympic Winter Games. It served over 350,000 passengers on February 1–28, 2014. Over 2,800 tons of luggage was handled during the Olympic period. The original airfield was constructed to protect Russia's Black Sea coast during World War II; construction took place between 8 July and 1 September 1941, on the site of the liquidated state seed farm "Chernomorets". By order of the Chief of the Office of Civil Aviation, the site became an established airport on 23 November 1945. In 1956, the first terminal building (now the old building) and X Games Research. The event also reached record highs in several demographic categories. To accommodate the first-time live coverage, nighttime competitions were added, resulting in record attendance for the Aspen/Snowmass venue in Colorado. The 2002 Winter X Games was a huge year for ESPN and the X Games. It was the first year that the games were held in Aspen at Buttermilk Mountain. The Games continued to add new events including the ski slopestyle event, ski superpipe event, snowboarding, skateboarding etc. The most memorable incident of the 2002 Games was when the entire 2002 U.S. Olympic freestyle snowboarding team showed up to U.S. Snowboarding body exclusively for competitive amateur snowboarding. 1989 - The USASA held a Trampoline Snowboarding Contest at Snow Valley, California. Held in September, at the base of Snow valley, Chuck Allen was able to get sponsors like Kemper, Sims, PlainSane and many others. The contest consisted of athletes performing three tricks, graded by a panel of judges. A notable winner was the young Janna Meyen in women's. 1990 - The USASA holds their first national championships Held in February, at Snow Valley, California, the worst snow storm of the decade hits just before the event and closes all roads to Big Sébastien Toutant skills were first noticed when he won his first professional event at just 13 years of age. He was taken by a film crew to Mount Hood shortly after to shoot video of him on the biggest jumps he had seen at this point in his life. Toutant had missed making his debut the X Games in 2010 because of a broken ankle. The following season though, Toutant won a silver medal in Snowboard Big Air at the 2011 Winter X Games XV in Aspen, Colorado, behind Torstein Horgmo. He also won gold in Snowboard Slopestyle in the same games, Australia at the Winter Olympics Australia has competed once in ice hockey, in 1960. The team lost every game, placing last out of nine countries. Australia has not competed in curling as an official sport at the Olympics, but has competed in it as a demonstration sport, placing seventh in 1992. These are the only times that Australia has competed in team sports involving ball-like objects. Zeke Steggall—brother of Zali—represented Australia in snowboarding's first two appearances at the Olympics in 1998 and 2002, finishing in the bottom 20% in each of his slalom races. The number of events in the discipline was increased and the Bear Mountain (ski area) the few Superpipes in Southern California. Given sufficient natural snow, its tree runs are open for skiing and snowboarding, unlike those at Snow Summit. Even that territory normally "out of bounds" off of Chair 8 has opened after heavy snow. Olympic Gold Medalist Shaun White frequented Bear Mountain while he was quite young, although he spent most of his time on the Snow Summit Westridge freestyle run. Bear Mountain popularized freestyle skiing and snowboarding with its establishment of the first freestyle park in the early 1990s. In the early 2000s, Transworld Snowboarding Magazine placed Bear Mountain among its Top 10