American snowboarders' quest for Olympic gold begins next week in South America, of all places.

The U.S. Snowboard team will compete Sept. 6-9 at the season's first World Cup meet in the high mountains of Valle Nevado, Chile. The team is making the long trip below the equator to solidify spots in the limited 2002 Winter Games field, which is based on the November 2001 International Ski Federation (FIS) points list.

"Basically, we're looking good for three and probably four (spots) in men's halfpipe," said head coach Peter Foley. The women's team has tied up three slots and probably could earn a fourth if 1998 Olympic bronze medalist Shannon Dunn chooses to compete, he said.

The men's and women's alpine teams also need to make a good showing to fill their quota spots for the Olympic parallel giant slalom.

Riders trained on and off snow for the most of the summer.

"It's been going well. Everyone seems to be riding well in both halfpipe and alpine. I like what I see," Foley said shortly before leaving for Chile.

A series of five U.S. Grand Prix meets in December and January will serve as trials for the Olympic halfpipe team. Riders will count their best two of a potential five results.

Veteran Tricia Byrnes, U.S. national champion Kelly Clark and Gretchen Bleiler are frontrunners for the women's team.

The experienced and well-decorated men's field is "wide open," Foley said.

U.S. and X-Games champ Danny Kass, Tommy Czeschin, Park City native and former world champion Ricky Bower, Olympic bronze medalist Ross Powers, Rob Kingwill, teenage phenom Shaun White, Keir Dillon and veteran Todd Richards ("if he decides to do it," Foley said) are among the top contenders.

Parallel giant slalom racers, too, will compete in five contests — one Grand Prix and four World Cups — to determine the Olympic team. Their best two finishes will count.

Nagano Olympian Chris Klug, who won the Grand Prix PGS title after a liver transplant last summer, heads the men's potential Olympic qualifiers, with Jeff Greenwood, Anton Pogue and Ian Price in the mix.

U.S. slalom and parallel giant slalom title holder Rosey Fletcher and former Utah resident Sondra Van Ert are a cut above the women riders. "After that, it's pretty tight," Foley said, listing Lisa Kosglow and Stacia Hookom as potential qualifiers.

"Things are gonna rock this season. The Olympics bring out the best of the best," Foley said. "It'll be intense."

The team will be announced in late January. "At least some of the positions will be contested right down to the end," he said.

The Olympic field is capped at 125 athletes — 35 each in men's and women's parallel giant slalom and 35 men and 20 women in halfpipe. A nation may send more more than four riders per event. Only 14 athletes per nation will be accredited, meaning a country that qualifies a full team gets only three competitors in two of the events.

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Snowboarding made its debut in the 1998 Olympics under those conditions but Foley says the sport should be treated more like alpine skiing in which there is no fixed field size for the Winter Games.

"It was understandable then," he said, noting snowboarding was a late addition to the Nagano Games. "Somehow we got stuck with those numbers again."

U.S. officials have proposed to open up the field and allow each nation at least one athlete per discipline. But that won't happen in Salt Lake City, meaning some countries will be shut out completely.


E-mail: romboy@desnews.com

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