2010 Olympics: Snowboarding Preview

Snowboarding Preview

Most of us know what snowboarding is and we are pretty familiar with how that stuff works. Basically snowboarding is the fastest growing sport as evident by things such as the winter X games where that is the fastest growing event. Kids and adults are alike in starting to get into the sport which has brought a lot more light to the sport and quality competition from the United States.

Events

Men’s Parallel Giant Slalom
Ladies’ Parallel Giant Slalom
Men’s Halfpipe
Ladies’ Halfpipe
Men’s Snowboard Cross
Ladies’ Snowboard Cross

Like I said most of you know what the snowboarding is all about but for the sake of those people that don’t know I will review this right quick.

The halfpipe is an event where the competitors are based on tricks they perform. The ramp is shaped like a pipe that is cut in half (imagine that). The riders in this event are judged on the height they get when going from side to side and the types of tricks that they do. The better and more smoothly they get through their tricks the better the score.

The parallel giant slalom the competitors race against another competitor down a course and making mandatory turns through a series of gates. Pretty simple for the winner. First one down wins.

In the snowboard cross there will be four racers that race down the hill at the same time. The hill has bumps, jumps and ramps. They run in the heats of four and the top two advances. You get the idea.

In 2006 the snowboard events was one event where the Americans cleaned house. The United States took home 7 medals (3,3,1). Switzerland was the only other country to win more than one medal with four (3,1,0).

Shaun White is also a big player in the snowboarding scene and he was a gold medal winner for the U.S. in the 2006 games in the halfpipe. Kevin Pearce and Danny Davis are also top flight boarders who can win some medals.

From the “I bet you didn’t know” files, Snowboarding, and more specifically White, are ratings magnets. NBC saw 23.2 million viewers watch White’s victory in 2006, which was 3.3 million more than the average for the Games. Actually, the halfpipe final even outdrew the Opening Ceremonies, which attracted 22.2 million viewers.

Jasey-Jay Anderson is a Canadian and is looking to win some medals this year in his last Olympics. He is in his home country so I am sure he will be geeked up. Australians Benjamin Karl and Andreas Prommegger will also look to overtake Shaun White this year.

Three Rivers Burgh Blog – Shaun White and Kelly Clark are gonna win.

The Steelers n’at – Shaun White looks like CarrotTop but he’s a lot better at his job. Therefore, he’s going to win. The US and Canada are going to dominate this sport. Europeans will be lucky with anything more than a bronze medal in any of the snowboarding events.