Former World Cup alpine skier Sondra Van Ert of Ketchum, Idaho, was the only woman to earn two medals at the FIS World Snowboard Championships when she earned bronze Sunday in the parallel slalom.
On the final day of the inaugural championships, Marion Posch of Italy defeated Marcella Boerma of The Netherlands in the finals of the elimination format.Van Ert edged Heidi Renoth of Germany to take third place.
Ivo Rudiferia made it a gold medal sweep by Italian riders on the last day as he ousted German Rainer Krug. Helmut Pramtaller of Austria, who took third place in the giant slalom, earned bronze in parallel slalom by beating Sweden's Ulf Maard.
Van Ert, 31, the self-styled "old lady" of the tour, surprised herself with the second medal. "I've never made (advanced) a round in the parallels before," she said.
"I'm not that (physically) exhausted, but I'm mentally drained to the max," she said. "I didn't get here the prettiest way. Unfortunately, I was slipping and sliding, and had snow on me on almost every run but that's the game of parallel slalom."
A member of the U.S. Ski Team in the mid-1980s, she later skied for the University of Utah, earning the silver medal at downhill at the 1987 World University Games. She became a snowboarder in 1990.
Her medal gave the U.S. team nine medals, exactly half the total awarded during the championships. Ross Powers of South Londonderry, Vt., started the medals parade as he led a 1-2-3 U.S. sweep by U.S. riders Wednesday in halfpipe, the opening event.
"I knew coming in we had a strong enough team to do great," U.S. coach Peter Foley said. "But having it actually happen is a different story. It happened and I'm happy."
Snowboarding is one of the newest Olympic winter sports. The International Olympic Committee awarded Olympic rights for snowboarding to the International Ski Federation, which is involved in a dispute with the International Snowboarding Federation over control of the sport.
The IOC stipulated snowboarding could not become part of the Winter Games until FIS operated a World Cup schedule and staged a World Championships.
Nagano organizers announced last month they would add snowboarding to the 1998 Olympic schedule with giant slalom and halfpipe competitions.