U.S. Snowboarding, the snowboarding arm of the United States Ski and Snowboard Association (USSA), is committed to the progression of snowboarding by providing athletic programs, services, and competitions for male and female athletes of all ages, coast-to-coast. Since the inclusion of snowboarding as a medal sport in 1998, U.S. Snowboarding has accounted for 14 Olympic medals, including the sweep of the podium in men’s halfpipe in 2002 and a best in the world performance of seven medals in 2006.
*The first U.S. Snowboarding Team was officially named in 1994, prior to the 1994–95 season in order to prepare for the 1998 Winter Olympic Games in Nagano, Japan, where the sport would make its Olympic debut, however the United States had participated in snowboarding World Cup competitions since the tour was created in 1988.
1965 – Invention of the Snurfer. Snowboarding was born in 1965 when Sherman Poppen created the "Snurfer" by bracing a pair of skis together and riding sideways down his backyard hill in Muskegon, Michigan. [1] Through the late 60s, 70s and early 80s snowboard designs developed with the help of snowboard innovators.
1968 – Tongue-in-cheek, students at Muskegon Community College in Muskegon, MI organize the first "World Snurfing Championship." Hosted at "Blockhouse Hill" in Muskegon State Park, the event draws between 200 and 300 spectators, and becomes an annual affair. [2]
1978 – JEM Corporation, manufacturer of the "Snurfer," sponsors the "National Snurfing Championship" in Muskegon. [3] This is the first competition to offer prize money.
1979 – Jake Burton and Paul Graves compete in the "National Snurfing Championship" in Muskegon. [4]
1981 – Modern competitive snowboarding begins with a small contest held in April at Ski Cooper in Leadville, Colorado.
1982 – Paul Graves organizes the National Snowsurfing Championships
1983 – Jake Burton Carpenter organizes the National Snowboarding Championships
1987 – North American Snowboard Association formed
1988 – The first World Cup is held. Four World Cup events were held with two in North America and two in Europe.
1988 – United States Amateur Snowboarding Association formed. Former amateur surf promoter Chuck Allen incorporates the United States Amateur Snowboarding Association (USASA) in July with a $500 donation from Transworld SNOWboarding Magazine. USASA is the first governing body exclusively for competitive amateur snowboarding.
1989 – The USASA held a Trampoline Snowboarding Contest at Snow Valley, California.
1990 – The USASA holds their first national championships. Held in February, at Snow Valley, the worst snow storm of the decade hits just before the event and closes all roads to Big Bear. Amateur snowboarders from all over the country are left stranded.
1990 – The International Snowboard Federation (ISF) forms. Following the collapse of the National Association of Professional Snowboarders, Ted Martin, Kazuo Ogura, and Christian Savioz create the ISF as the sanctioning body for international competition.
1993 – First official World Championships held. The ISF holds its first official Snowboard World Championships in Ischgl, Austria.
1993 – The International Ski Federation (FIS) votes to recognize snowboarding. The FIS votes to recognize snowboarding and plans several events in 1994 with a full-fledged World Cup Tour to start in 1995.
1995 – First U.S. Snowboarding Team named. Created as the snowboarding arm of the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association, U.S. Snowboarding created a national team to compete on the World Cup tour in preparation for the Olympic Games, where the sport was to debut in 1998. Former competitor Peter Foley was named head coach.
1995 – First World Cup tour held
1996 – U.S. Snowboarding Grand Prix created
1997 – U.S. Skiing changes name to U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association. When U.S. Skiing became the official National Governing Body of snowboarding in 1997, the organization changed its name from U.S. Skiing to the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association.
1998 – Snowboarding debuts at the Olympic Games in Nagano, Japan
2002 – U.S. men sweep Olympic halfpipe podium at Park City, Utah
2006 – U.S. Snowboarding lands seven medals at the Olympics in Torino, Italy
2007 – Center of Excellence Groundbreaking
2022 – Foley dismissed
In 2022, U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) alleged that U.S. Ski & Snowboard had been interfering with a United States Center for SafeSport investigation into charges by three former American athletes and a former U.S. Ski & Snowboard employee against head coach Peter Foley, who coached the U.S. Snowboard team from 1994 to 2022. [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] U.S. Ski & Snowboard President and CEO Sophie Goldschmidt pushed back on the claims the organization had interfered in the probe. [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] After former snowboardcross Olympian Callan Chythlook-Sifsof accused Foley of sexually and racially inappropriate remarks in Instagram posts, and others accused Foley of sexual misconduct, he was temporarily suspended by SafeSport, and then dismissed by U.S. Ski & Snowboard. [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] By August 2022, at least five women had made reports to SafeSport regarding Foley's behavior. [10]
2023 — On August 8, 2023, after an 18-month investigation, SafeSport suspended Foley for ten years for sexual misconduct. [11] [12] [13]
The pipeline to making the U.S. Snowboarding Team begins with young riders competing at regional competitions across the country. Riders can compete as individuals or often as part of a local club organization or team. Most regional competition series are sanctioned by the United States of America Snowboard Association (USASA). From local series events, freestyle riders make the jump to the Revolution Tour for halfpipe, snowboard cross and slopestyle.
The U.S. Snowboarding Race to the Cup is the national competition series for alpine riders. Based on results from these and other national competitions, riders earn points through a specified criteria [14] toward qualifying for the U.S. Snowboarding Team.
U.S. Snowboarding names team riders for halfpipe and snowboard cross. The team is named annually, usually in mid summer. The USSA is one of the only Olympic sports in America to support a full-time standing national team in every sport. These athletes compete as a team in major national competitions like the Chevrolet U.S. Snowboarding Grand Prix, X Games, Vans Cup, and US Open, as well as World Cup [15] competitions. Teams for FIS World Championships (held every odd year) and Olympic Winter Games (every four years) are selected by specific criteria [16] and named for those individual events. Additionally, top riders from both the Revolution Tour and Race to the Cup series receive invitations to train with U.S. Snowboarding as part of the Project Gold [17]
Event | Place | Athlete | Highlights |
---|---|---|---|
1998 Olympic Games | Nagano, Japan | Ross Powers | Bronze Halfpipe |
1998 Olympic Games | Nagano, Japan | Shannon Dunn (now Dunn-Downing) | Bronze Halfpipe |
2002 Olympic Games | Salt Lake City, Utah | Ross Powers | Gold Halfpipe |
2002 Olympic Games | Salt Lake City, Utah | Kelly Clark | Gold Halfpipe |
2002 Olympic Games | Salt Lake City, Utah | Danny Kass | Silver Halfpipe |
2002 Olympic Games | Salt Lake City, Utah | J.J. Thomas | Bronze Halfpipe |
2002 Olympic Games | Salt Lake City, Utah | Chris Klug | Bronze Parallel Giant Slalom |
2006 Olympic Games | Torino, Italy | Shaun White | Gold Halfpipe |
2006 Olympic Games | Torino, Italy | Hannah Teter | Gold Halfpipe |
2006 Olympic Games | Torino, Italy | Seth Wescott | Gold Snowboardcross |
2006 Olympic Games | Torino, Italy | Danny Kass | Silver Halfpipe |
2006 Olympic Games | Torino, Italy | Gretchen Bleiler | Silver Halfpipe |
2006 Olympic Games | Torino, Italy | Lindsey Jacobellis | Silver Snowboardcross |
2006 Olympic Games | Torino, Italy | Rosey Fletcher | Bronze Parallel Giant Slalom |
2010 Olympic Games | Vancouver, Canada | Shaun White | Gold Halfpipe |
2010 Olympic Games | Vancouver, Canada | Seth Wescott | Gold Snowboardcross |
2010 Olympic Games | Vancouver, Canada | Scotty Lago | Bronze Halfpipe |
2014 Olympic Games | Sochi, Russia | Kaitlyn Farrington Jamie Anderson Alex Deibold | Gold Halfpipe Gold Slopestyle Bronze Snowboardcross |
Year | Men's Champion | Women's Champion |
---|---|---|
2002 U.S. Snowboarding Grand Prix | Wyatt Caldwell | Kelly Clark |
2003 U.S. Snowboarding Grand Prix | Steve Fisher | Gretchen Bleiler |
2004 U.S. Snowboarding Grand Prix | Andy Finch | Hannah Teter |
2005 U.S. Snowboarding Grand Prix | Ross Powers | Lindsey Jacobellis |
2006 U.S. Snowboarding Grand Prix | Shaun White | Gretchen Bleiler |
2007 U.S. Snowboarding Grand Prix | Tommy Czeschin | Kelly Clark |
2008 U.S. Snowboarding Grand Prix | Louie Vito | Kelly Clark |
2009 U.S. Snowboarding Grand Prix | Louie Vito & Steve Fisher | Kelly Clark |
2010 U.S. Snowboarding Grand Prix | Shaun White | Kelly Clark |
2011 U.S. Snowboarding Grand Prix | Louie Vito | Kelly Clark |
2012 U.S. Snowboarding Grand Prix | Louie Vito | Kaitlyn Farrington |
2013 U.S. Snowboarding Grand Prix | Luke Mitrani | Arielle Gold |
Year | Athlete | Highlights |
---|---|---|
1995 | Lael Gregory | Halfpipe Champion |
1995 | Justin Koziol | Giant Slalom Champion, Parallel Champion |
1995 | Sabrina Sedeghi | Halfpipe Champion |
1996 | Ross Powers | Halfpipe Champion |
1996 | Mike Jacoby | Overall Champion, Giant Slalom Champion |
1999 | Ross Powers | Halfpipe Champion |
1999 | Tricia Byrnes | Halfpipe Champion |
2007 | Lindsey Jacobellis | Snowboardcross Champion |
2013 | Scotty Lago | Halfpipe Champion |
2013 | Kelly Clark | Halfpipe Champion |
Snowboarding is a recreational and competitive activity that involves descending a snow-covered surface while standing on a snowboard that is almost always attached to a rider's feet. It features in the Winter Olympic Games and Winter Paralympic Games.
Freestyle skiing is a skiing discipline comprising aerials, moguls, cross, half-pipe, slopestyle and big air as part of the Winter Olympics. It can consist of a skier performing aerial flips and spins and can include skiers sliding rails and boxes on their skis. Known as "hot-dogging" in the early 1970s, it is also commonly referred to as freeskiing, jibbing, as well as many other names, around the world.
Terje Håkonsen is a Norwegian professional snowboarder. He is considered one of the most influential snowboarders in the history of the sport. In the book The way of the snowboarder, Rob Reed wrote that "Haakonsen took the young sport of snowboarding and revolutionized nearly every aspect of it".
Gretchen ElisabethBleiler is an American former professional halfpipe snowboarder. She won a silver medal at the 2006 Olympics.
The Snurfer was the predecessor of the snowboard. It was a monoski, ridden like a snowboard, but like a skateboard or surfboard, it had no binding. According to the 1966 patent by inventor Sherman Poppen, it was wider and shorter than a pair of skis, with an anti-skid foot rest. Like a sled, it had a lanyard attached to the front.
Hannah Teter is an American snowboarder. She is an Olympic champion, having won the gold medal in the halfpipe at the 2006 Winter Olympic Games in Torino, Italy and silver at the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver. She has also won bronze at the 2005 FIS World Championships at Whistler, British Columbia, and has a total of six World Cup victories in her career. In January 2010, Teter was named to the US Team for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. She won the silver medal in women's halfpipe at the Vancouver Games. Teter came in fourth at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi.
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Gabrielle Rose "Rosey" Fletcher is an American three-time Olympian snowboarder. She competed at the 1998 Winter Olympics, the 2002 Winter Olympics, and the 2006 Winter Olympics. Fletcher won the Olympic bronze medal in the 2006 women's Parallel giant slalom event.
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