Snowboarding has a brief Olympic history, most of which revolves around whether its first gold medalist did or didn't inhale.
Canadian Ross Rebagliati testing positive for marijuana overshadowed his giant slalom victory in Nagano four years ago and added to the outlaw image snowboarders rode into the 1998 Winter Games. Sports Illustrated's Rick Reilly called it the single worst debut of an Olympic sport in history.
Not much of the sport itself was shown on American television from Japan. And when it did get air time, it was all about dope. Its athletes — some would argue whether they really are athletes — are virtually unknown outside the X-Games crowd.
Few people know the United States had two medalists in those Games — halfpipe riders Shannon Dunn and Ross Powers — both of whom will be back in 2002. (Rebagliati isn't returning to defend his title.)
Olympian Sondra Van Ert has seen a change in attitudes about the sport the past four years.
"The first time snowboarding went to the Olympics, there were a lot of factions going, 'Well, should it be there? Should it not be there?' Now you just don't even feel that, so I think it's just accepted," said Van Ert, who at 37 is the grande dame of U.S. snowboarding.
Snowboarding is the fastest-growing winter sport in the world. Tickets to the two Salt Lake Olympic events — halfpipe and parallel giant slalom — were among the first to sell out.
And despite hitting the mainstream, which has meant more commercialism and less control for some riders, snowboarding still has plenty of personality, from the thoughtful college graduate and magazine editor Tricia Byrnes to wacky halfpipe rider Danny Kass.
"But still, for the snowboarders it's all about going out riding and having fun," said Stine Brun Kjeldaas, 1998 Olympic halfpipe silver medalist. "I can see the spirit is still there and the soul is not gone or anything."
For all its popularity worldwide, snowboarding remains an upstart. There are still four resorts in the United States that don't allow "shredding," including Alta and Deer Valley in Utah.
Park City Mountain Resort — which drew some criticism for lifting its ban on snowboarding in 1996 after being named the Olympic venue — will stage the 2002 contests.
Even though the sport was invented in the United States about 35 years ago and really took off in the 1980s, American snowboarders have not dominated the international circuit. Europeans usually crowd the podium.
The U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association has set an ambitious goal of 10 skiing and snowboarding medals.
U.S. snowboard coach Peter Foley says the team is capable of holding up its end.
"I think it would be cool if we could do four. I'd like to see us get one in everything — men, women, parallel giant slalom and halfpipe. On a good day, that's totally within the realm of possibility. It's one day, so who knows what will actually happen. But, yeah, that's a doable thing," he said.
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The United States qualified 14 snowboarders for the Games, the most of any nation.
Top medal hopefuls in the halfpipe include Powers and Danny Kass for the men and Dunn and Kelly Clark for the women. Rosey Fletcher and Lisa Kosglow are the best women racers, while Chris Klug and Jeff Greenwood anchor the men.
Competitive snowboarding consists of two disciplines — alpine and freestyle.
Alpine snowboarding most closely resembles alpine skiing, the idea being to get down through the course as fast as possible. Racers compete in slalom, giant slalom and super-G. Freestylers compete in the halfpipe, a long hollowed-out channel of snow in which aerials and spins with names like McTwist or Rodeo are performed.
Perhaps the biggest innovation in snowboarding since the 1998 Games is the "superpipe," a longer halfpipe with larger, smoother curves on the walls. The shape allows riders to boost themselves higher above the lip and perform more complicated tricks. Judges score them on amplitude, rotations, straight airs and overall impression.
For the 2002 Olympics, the race event is parallel giant slalom. It pits snowboarders in head-to-head races, each taking a run on a red course and a blue course. Unlike slalom skiing's tall "breakaway" gates, snowboarding gates are short and triangular. The "stubbies" allow riders to carve low, tight turns.
The rider with the fastest combined time advances to the next round; the loser calls it a day in the "knockout" format. The final two competitors battle for gold and silver in what World Cup racing terms the "big final." The consolation or "small final" determines the bronze medalist.
Alpine riders tend to be older and more intense than their freestyle counterparts, whose youthful exuberance tends to put them on the wild side. It shows in the halfpipe, where riders express individuality with big airs and dizzying spins to head-banging music.
E-mail: romboy@desnews.com