Snowboarding - Part A - by Anne Shier (a.k.a. "Annie")

(Based on the book, “Winter Olympics:  An Insider’s Guide to the Legends, the Lore, and the Games”, Vancouver Edition, copyright 2008 by Ron C. Judd)

The irony was almost too rich.  And, we’d all been complicit in the setup.

In the days before the Nagano 1998 Olympics – way before anyone outside Whistler, B.C had heard the name Ross Rebagliatti – a lot of us “journos” (journalists) were cranking out stories about the new kids on the Winter Olympics block:  snowboarders.

The inclusion of mountain-sports bad kids – at least by reputation – was revolutionary at the time.  One, because it showed the International Olympic Committee actually taking progressive steps to keep its sports offerings fresh and in tune with a younger audience that is perceived as being more interested in spending its TV hours watching the X Games than the men’s downhill.  And two, because those IOC folks, in this regard, were even a bit ahead of the snowboarders themselves, who hadn’t campaigned to make their sport medal-worthy.

That flew in the face of history.  Generally, new sports undergo years of organizing, begging, pleading, cajoling, and even, in the old days, very likely bribing to be considered by the IOC for inclusion.  Not snowboarding, which the IOC actively courted, going so far as to help nudge the staid ski federation, the FIS, into taking this board sport under its wing and stealing it away, in essence, from an existing snowboard governing body.

That set off something of a moral dilemma among the world’s top snowboarders.  There was no question that their sport was athletically suitable for Olympic competition:  Top-level snowboarders are every bit as talented as elite skier, for instance.  But, there was ample question about whether the loose, laid-back world of snow riding – which thrived on a contrarian, free-spirited ethic more akin to surfing than to opening ceremonies – would fit comfortingly within the Olympic framework.

Many boarders, amped at the chance to win an Olympic medal, quickly got over this.  But, some didn’t.  Norway’s Terje Haakonsen, at the time widely considered to be the world’s premier snowboarder, announced that he would not ride in the Olympics – not this one, not any one.  But, tellingly, no other elite-level riders followed suit.

In America, from Mount Baker, Washington, to Stratton Mountain, Vermont, the dual-coast birthplaces of modern snowboarding, riders instead geared up for what most of them – and many of us – assumed would be an easy medal grab for Americans.  We did, after all, invent the sport, which ought to count for something, right?

But, on the ground in Nagano, the first snowboard competitions proved to be far from a sensation.  Giant slalom racing, which kicked off the events, took place at Mount Yakebitai at Shiga Kogen – notably, a ski resort that, like a few holdouts in the United States, still banned snowboarding, right up until the lighting of the flame.

Weather conditions were atrocious, with heavy snow, rain, and fog fouling early schedules.  But, when the riding did begin, an unheralded Canadian rider named Ross Rebagliatti smoked his second run, coming from far back in the pack to beat favourites that included America’s Chris King.  Canadian-born Rebagliatti, a free-spirited rider from Whistler, B.C., grabbed snowboarding’s first gold.  After his race, he dedicated it to a friend who had recently been killed in an avalanche.

copyright 2014, Anne Shier.  All rights reserved.