SNOWBOARDING

Buena Vista Ski Area to hold annual ski swap and open house Nov. 23

Pioneer Staff Report — Tue, 19 Nov 2024 17:53:16 GMT

BEMIDJI — Buena Vista Ski Area will hold its annual Welcome to Winter open house, which includes a ski and snowboard swap and ski patrol fundraiser, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 23, at Buena Vista, 19600 Irvine Ave. NW.

A portion of the consignment sales will go to Buena Vista's ski patrol for training and medical education. Ski and snowboard gear should be brought to Buena Vista for the swap from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 22, or 8 to 9:30 a.m. on Saturday, Nov. 23.

During the open house, there will be various vendors in attendance showing the latest in winter gear. Free pizza, drinks and cookies will be available to guests, who can also participate in free drawings.

The day is also an opportunity for people to purchase their season passes or snow passes. New this year, Buena Vista is offering a Little Paul Bunyan Snow Pass for ages 6-12, which includes three free group lessons.

Those who purchase a pass by Dec. 2 will receive a free bonus pack, which includes two complimentary lift tickets and two free food baskets, a release said.

For those unable to attend in person, passes can be bought on the Buena Vista website, by emailing tickets@bvskiarea.com or by calling the ski area at (218) 243-2231.

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Shaun White finishes fourth in snowboard halfpipe as his prolific Olympic career comes to a close

Thuc Nhi Nguyen / Los Angeles Times — Fri, 11 Feb 2022 21:59:10 GMT

ZHANGJIAKOU, China — Shaun White lifted his helmet off, the red hair that made him famous much shorter than it once was. He waved his black helmet to the crowd, lifted his hand and nodded his head.

Awaiting his score that he knew he wouldn't change the standings, White wiped a tear from the corner of his eye as fans cheered.

This is how it ends.

The snowboard legend finished fourth in the snowboarding halfpipe final on Friday at Genting Snow Park in the last competition of his storied career. The 35-year-old dropped in for his final run in fourth place with a chance to overtake Switzerland's Jan Scherrer for the bronze medal. Instead, White fell on his second hit.

Japanese star Ayumu Hirano landed historic triple corks in each of his three runs and won his first Olympic gold medal after settling for silver in the last two Games. After one triple cork in his second score of 91.75 didn't surpass Australian Scotty James' 92.5, Hirano threw down back-to-back triple-flipping, quadruple-twisting tricks in a championship-clinching 96-point run on the final attempt of the day.

After stomping the winning run, Hirano modestly raised his mittened hand. James, who won bronze in Pyeongchang, took silver.

American Taylor Gold finished fifth after falling on his last two runs while Chase Josey placed seventh.

White got through his first two runs cleanly, including an 85-point attempt in the second round that vaulted him into second place. The efforts sent a message that even amid the wave of nostalgia surrounding his final contest, White was, indeed, the defending gold medalist.

That fact felt overshadowed by his impending retirement. When he decided that this would be the end, the pressure to win or pursue the 2026 Games in Milan evaporated. It turned into "an appreciation tour."

"I could honestly say I'm so proud of what I've done," he said after Wednesday's qualification rounds. "And I can't wait to see what the next generation does with this sport. Look at where it's come."

White remembered when they dug halfpipes with shovels. Now on what Josey called "the best pipe in the world," Hirano landed the first triple corks in Olympic competition. The Japanese star stomped the trick during his first attempt but didn't complete the run. White believes a quad is within reason.

While he never landed a triple cork in competition, White was one of the first to attempt the daring triple-flip trick. Teammate Lucas Foster credited White for putting the sport on "the train that it's on."

"He's given a lot to this sport," Foster said. "And it'll be interesting to see which direction it goes in."

In a post-Shaun White era, snowboarding is at a crossroads. While bigger and bigger tricks are quick ways to impress judges, Foster and Gold are envisioning a future where they can bring style back. Instead of just adding another twist or flip, riders want to get creative with tricks that might not look as impressive as triples but are just as difficult.

"[The style] of halfpipe is what drew me to it initially and I think that's super valuable for people watching who want to get into snowboarding, who want to get into halfpipe," said Gold, who qualified seventh despite his biggest spin being a 1260 compared to leaders who threw 1440s. "When [style is] scored well, it makes other riders want to add it to their runs as well so it kind of has this effect of creating more style in the whole event."

There's never a guarantee how judges will value creativity against pure difficulty each day, Gold said.

Gold broke his kneecap into multiple pieces in 2016 while riding in the backcountry. It took him four years to ride without pain again.

The 28-year-old jumped out to an early lead, relying on two clean 1260s to vault him into first place after the first run. He stayed there when the top three qualifiers — Ruka Hirano, Scotty James and Ayumu Hirano — fell on their first runs, but Gold had no chance when Ayumu Hirano and James landed their second runs.

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Lindsey Jacobellis erases memories of Torino with snowboard gold

Thuc Nhi Nguyen / Los Angeles Times — Thu, 10 Feb 2022 00:41:44 GMT

ZHANGJIAKOU, China — Go ahead. Keep talking about 2006.

Lindsey Jacobellis was on the second-to-last jump in the Olympic snowboard cross final when she decided to spice things up. Rather than taking her considerable lead to the finish, she decided to do a needless backside air, but instead she fell. By the time she recovered, her gold had turned to silver. And that's exactly what got her here, on top of an Olympic podium 5,000 miles away from Torino, Italy.

The 36-year-old five-time Olympian finally added the elusive Olympic gold medal to her overflowing trophy case with a snowboard cross victory at Genting Snow Park on Wednesday, redeeming herself for a 16-year-old gaffe that she never seemed to escape.

Teammates rejoiced at the bottom of the run, shrieking as Jacobellis squatted low to the ground to cross the finish line in front of Chloe Trespeuch of France and Canada's Meryeta O'Dine, who took silver and bronze, respectively. Australian Belle Brockhoff finished fourth in the final race.

Already sporting a wide grin while charging through the final feet of the course, Jacobellis clutched her hands to her chest after the finish.

"It just seemed like an unbelievable moment," she said. "It didn't seem real at the time."

Many may have imagined the moment she crossed the finish line would symbolize exorcising of demons that lingered from 2006. But Jacobellis insists she let those go a long time ago.

Instead on Wednesday, she was simply free to feel the joy of winning the United States' first gold medal of these Games and adding "Olympic champion" to her impressive resume.

"[I] have done a lot of soul searching to realize that that moment doesn't define me as an athlete and as an individual," Jacobellis said. "What I've accomplished in this sport and how I've shaped this sport is huge and instrumental."

It sounds like an arrogant overstatement but is simply the truth coming from Jacobellis. She is her sport's most accomplished athlete: 31 World cup victories, 10 X Games gold medals, six world championship gold medals.

But her Olympics mishaps have been almost as numerous.

She was one of the rising stars in Torino, a marketable 20-year-old with blond hair and a bright smile. Then her overconfident flub turned into one of the biggest bloopers of the Games.

After settling for silver in 2006, she failed to even make the finals in 2010 and 2014. In Pyeongchang, she blew another early lead and finished 0.03 seconds away from bronze.

The recent shortcomings made Jacobellis grateful to even make the final Wednesday when there was another close finish. But chaos and tight races are the norm in snowboard cross, where four riders compete in heats shoulder-to-shoulder in something akin to NASCAR, if the cars were swerving down a mountain.

The minuscule margins for error in the sport took Jacobellis time to process and accept. Now at 36, she's ready to let the results go.

"There's definitely those times that I look back on my other past Olympic experiences where I was just missing out or it just didn't come together and at the end of the day, that's just our sport," Jacobellis said.

"There's so many uncontrollable variables. … As I've gotten older I've learned to forgive myself of the uncontrollable variables, and that's just taking maturity and time and understanding, and that helps you heal and move on and apply that skill that you learned in the next race."

Jacobellis is respected in her sport for her experience and activism on behalf of women in snowboarding. She runs an all-female snowboard cross race, Super Girl Snow Pro, and hosts girls of all ages, who get coaching from professionals. She marvels at the sport's growth and the depth at women's competitions now.

"Honestly, if it's going to go to anyone, I'm so proud that she got it," said O'Dine, the Canadian bronze medalist. "Not only the fact that she's one of the most experienced riders on tour, she's a very, very, outspoken woman for the rights of our sports and the rights of our athletes and what she believes should make things safer and easier flowing for the sport."

After the final, Brockhoff approached Jacobellis to congratulate her. The 29-year-old Australian told the American star she watched her as a young girl in Torino.

Jacobellis was supposed to leave those Games with gold. But after finally getting one Wednesday, Jacobellis said she might not have won this medal had she won in 2006. She may have quit the sport. It wasn't very fun for her, she said. The pressure was immense, and people didn't understand. A gold medal would have brought her even more media attention.

But her strong competitive nature and joy from seeing the sport develop kept her going despite the Olympic setbacks and days that sent her anxiety soaring. Days like Wednesday make it all worth it, she said.

Jacobellis brushed off any questions about whether these would be her last Games, and when asked what people should take away from stories like hers, Jacobellis shrugged.

"Don't count the ol' girl out."

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latimes.com

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