TOMAS BORSA
Sports Writer

    At one time snowboarding was thought to be skiing’s younger, dead-beat brother. However, snowboarding has become one of the biggest crowd draws at the Vancouver Olympics.

    Maybe it’s the welcome lack of pretention, or maybe it’s the looming possibility of grave bodily injury. Or, maybe, it’s the fact that after the sport’s infamously hazy start in 1998, the only way was up.

    Either way, last week’s men’s and women’s half-pipe and snowboard cross events were wildly popular. To no-one’s surprise, American Shaun White won the men’s half-pipe event, while Australian Torah Bright took women’s gold. In snowboard cross, Vancouver’s Maelle Ricker took Canada’s second gold in the women’s event, while American Seth Wescott topped the field in the men’s event after narrowly passing Canadian Mike Robertson at the finish line.

    Let’s just quickly touch on one of the world’s greatest snowboarders for a moment, shall we? Shaun White has his own clothing line. He has his own private half-pipe hidden in the Colorado backcountry, accessible only by helicopter. He has hair that can only be described as a “silken red explosion.”

    Not surprisingly then, the men’s half-pipe competition was billed for months as Shaun White vs. the world. And in typical style, White sealed his victory by landing something that no-one else has ever even attempted or bothered to devise a name for: a 1260-degree double McTwist. It involves three-and-a-half full rotations, while upside-down, doing two off-axis back flips. To visualize this, pick up the nearest action figure and under-hand toss it as high as you can — that’s a 1260-degree double McTwist.

    Right behind White in the medal standings was vowel-happy Peetu Piiroinen, whose silver is only the second half-pipe medal for Finland since the sport was introduced in 1998. American Scotty Lago rounded out the men’s medallists by taking bronze.

    An important note: Lago is equally famous for his shenanigans and was asked to leave the Olympic village for “inappropriate behaviour.” A quick Google search of his name will instantly destroy the façade I’ve created that snowboarders are actually legitimate, serious athletes. Well, most of them are, but some snowboarders can be just straight up skids.

    On the Canadian side of things, Ottawa’s Justin Lamoureux finished seventh, which marks the best ever Olympic finish by a Canadian man in half-pipe. Other Canadians in the mix included Brad Martin and Jeff Batchelor, who failed to advance to the finals.

Unlike the men’s event, the women’s half-pipe competition featured a wide range of possible medal contenders and in the end, Australian Torah Bright beat Americans Kelly Clark and Hannah Teter by landing a switch backside 720° (two full rotations with a blind takeoff and landing), a first in women’s Olympic half-pipe. Whistler local Mercedes Nicoll finished sixth and recorded her best ever score, with 34.3 out of 50.

The final snowboard events of the games — the high-speed, ever-spandexy giant slalom and parallel giant slalom — will be held on Feb. 26 and 27. Canada’s Jasey-Jay Anderson, a four time world champion, is heavily favoured to win the men’s parallel giant slalom and is unquestionably Canada’s most decorated snowboarder.

 
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