Building the Team: Men's Snowboarding

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Ladies Figure Skating

As one of the most popular “action sports” in the United States, snowboarding boasts some the most recognizable athletes on the US team, including arguably the most famous athlete in the entire outfit. For this post, we’ll focus on the major questions surrounding the men’s hopefuls in the halfpipe and slopestyle events. Barring some unforeseen results, the United States will be able to qualify four competitors in both disciplines. The team will be determined through three qualifying events, which start in December at Colorado’s Copper Mountain Resort and culminate at Mammoth Mountain in January.

Can anybody beat Shaun White in the pipe?

This question really applies to the whole field, not just the American contingent. When he's dialed in, White is seemingly unstoppable within the walls of the pipe. The San Diego high flyer has won six straight X-Games golds in the SuperPipe and the last two Olympic halfpipe titles. He’s revolutionized the sport a couple times and is the most well known boarder who’s ever lived. The artist formally known as the “Flying Tomato” has pretty much carried the sport as a relevant entity since he was 16 years old, getting a mediocre video game named after him (couldn’t overcome the SSX series) and earning an endorsement deal with Target. I believe that makes him, the cute Target dog, Chip Ganassi race cars and everything in Minnesota as the only things sponsored by Target. Anyway, White has also come through in the much talked about “clutch” situations time and time again, although it’s common for him to “stomp” (that word needs to be utilized more) his first or second run en-route to a third run victory lap. White probably has the most famous victory lap of all-time too, his ridiculous Double McTwist 1260 punctuating a run he didn’t even need to win the gold medal in Vancouver. It’s not a question of who can beat White; it’s more about who can keep it competitive.

With all due respect to Japanese teen sensation Ayumu Hirano and Iouri Podladtchikov, the Swiss rider affectionately known as “I-Pod”, we’re focusing on the US team in this space. Those are two of a growing group of international shredders with White in their sights. However, we’re trying to determine the US team, so lets put those guys to the side for now.

I don’t really know what it’s like to live in someone’s shadow, but if I ever wanted to know, I’d ask Scotty Lago and Louie Vito. Those two names have occupied the other spots next to US flags on leaderboards through much of White’s reign of dominance. Both are very good, but neither has shown any propensity to beat White on a consistent basis.

Many Americans probably know Vito for his off-snow appearances more than anything he’s ever done in Breckenridge, Park City or Aspen. The Ohio native appeared on Dancing with the Stars just before the Olympics in 2010, finishing eighth, and appeared in ESPN’s much talked about Body Issue. But Vito’s no slouch on the hill, and as a two-time Dew Tour overall halfpipe champion, is clearly one of the best boarders in the world. Weirdly though, Vito’s come up a bit small in the contests with the most eyeballs focused on his sport.  Vito has only won one medal in US-based Winter X-Games  (a bronze in 07), and secured a fifth place finish in Vancouver. I don’t want to sound like I’m hating on Vito, but barring an explosion in technical improvement or White totally disregarding snowboarding to focus on his band, I don’t see him challenging El Tomato. He’ll definitely be in contention for a medal though. I also respect the fact that he, according to his bio, enjoys “just plain chilling”.  True that, Mr. Vito. True that.

Louie Vito will be a medal threat in Sochi

Unlike his American teammate, Lago has mounted an Olympic podium. The New Hampshire-bred rider took home the bronze in Vancouver and has generally been on or around the podium at most of the major events since. He’s also apart of the Frends Crew, a group of riders committed to returning snowboarding to its roots. Lago has been the most successful of the clan, nabbing couple of X-Games medals to go along with his Olympic bronze. He’s also been flying the flag for fallen Frend Kevin Pearce, who suffered life-threatening injuries in a training crash in the lead-up to the 2010 Olympics. Before his injury, Pearce had started to become White’s biggest challenge on the hill, controversially losing to the Californian in the 2009 X-Games final. An excellent documentary called “The Crash Reel” recently profiled Pearce’s struggles to recover from his injuries. I encourage anyone to check it out. Lago and rising Frends member Luke Mitrani are both candidates to fill spots on the US Team in Sochi, and will no doubt have Pearce in their thoughts as they compete this winter.

Other candidates to fill out the Sochi halfpipe squad include 2010 Olympian Greg Bretz, Taylor Gold, Benji Farrow and Brett Esser. Bretz has been steady since his appearance in Vancouver, but his spot is definitely up for grabs. Gold is the youngest American man with a realistic shot at a spot, although his sister (who we’ll discuss later) may be the best rider in the Gold family.

Prediction: White, Vito, Lago, Mitrani

Long story short, this team is White and everybody else unless something drastically changes. Vito and Lago haven’t given any indication they’ve slipped below Olympic caliber performance. I expect them to retain their spots and contend for medals. For weird sentimental reasons, I’ll slide Mitrani into the fourth slot, though any of the guys I mentioned above could grab it. Hey, that’s the spot that Pearce would probably be in if his career hadn’t ended prematurely. It feels right that one of his “Frends” would fill it.

US slopestyle veteran Chas Guldemond  

If slopestyle is the future, does the US have the guns to compete?

At just 19 years old, Canadian Mark McMorris is the best slopestyle rider in the world. Blessed with both excellent technical ability and explosive aptitude, McMorris is the reigning X-Games champion in the event and captured the 2012/2013 World Snowboard Tour SS title. He and a contingent of talented northern European competitors have begun to dominate snowboarding’s other discipline over the past few years. Norwegians Stale Sandbech and Torstien Horgmo (my favorite name in the sport) and Fins Peetu Piiroinen and Roope Tontari are also prominent fixtures in world slopestyle. If the US is shutout from the medals, it will be because of those guys.

But will the Americans be off the medal stand? Based on recent results, there’s a definite possibility it could happen. It’s highly probable that White will also compete in slopestyle in Russia. During the mid-2000s White was almost as dominate in the event as he was in halfpipe, so he’s a medal threat if he straps up his bindings on top of Sochi’s slopestyle course. However, despite his talent, White can’t waltz into slopestyle and get a result. His inconsistent showing at the X-Games in 2013 proved that, as White failed to put together a medal winning run in Aspen.

Looking past White, things get a little uncertain from an American perspective. The highest ranked American at the end of the WST season, Eric Willet, finished fourth at the Burton European Open over Sandbech and Piiroinen and has X-Games medals in his past. Chas Guldemond has been a staple of the slopestyle scene since the back half of last decade. If he’s in form in Sochi, he’ll be a medal threat. Young gun Sage Kostenburg would most likely round out a potential four-man American team. The Idaho native took home silver at the X-Games in 2012 and at age 20 has his best years ahead of him.

Others to Watch: Ryan Stassel, Eric Beauchemin.

Prediction: White, Guldemond, Kostenburg, Willett.

The problem for the US will never be a lack of talented riders. You probably won’t find a better snowboarding scene anywhere else in the world. The issue may be high expectations. American riders have won five of the six halfpipe golds given out since the event was added in Salt Lake. It would be unthinkable for many American fans that the US could get shutout in any snowboarding event. While it’s highly improbable that will happen in halfpipe, it’s a possibility in downhill jump-rail-kicker extravaganza that is slopestyle. That said, the foursome I digitally penciled in above is a strong squad and it’s conceivable that any of those four guys could bring hardware back to the States.

What needs to be made clear to the casual American fan who tunes into NBC’s taped broadcast of slopestyle to watch Shaun and the boys do work is that this event is a slugfest. The talent in it is immense and a lot of it is not American. It would be seen as a massive disappointment by fans and probably USA Snowboarding if the Red, White and Blue failed to win a slopestyle medal. Lets be honest, I’ll probably throw a fit. But when I calm down, and the Americans have finished fourth, fifth, seventh and ninth, I’ll recognize that as a significant accomplishment. Thankfully, I’ve got a few months to move my expectations drastically up or down from the reasonable level they’re at now. I’ll say this much, as long as the Americans stomp (I used it again!) their runs in Sochi, I think Uncle Sam will be pretty stoked about the results.