The origins of snowboarding go back to Christmas Day 1965 when an engineer named Sherman Poppen strapped two skis together to give his daughters something to do. He called it a “snurfer” and started selling them the next year.
Jake Burton came along, refined the toy and helped turn snowboarding into a mass market sport. Along the way superstars like Shaun White and Chloe Kim redefined what could be done in the air and the sport is always reinventing itself in terms of tricks. What to expect as the Winter Olympics arrive.
How it works
There are three snowboarding events in what’s called the park ( halfpipe, slopestyle and big air) and two more that involve racing (snowboardcross and parallel giant slalom). The park contests are the core of the sport. They are judged events that include qualifying and finals where riders are scored on the complexity of the tricks and how high they fly. Snowboardcross is a rugged form of four-wide racing down a winding course and PGS is the closest this sport has to Alpine skiing.
Who to watch
Kim goes for an unprecedented third straight title in the halfpipe. On the men’s side, the best rider standing in the way of Japanese star Ayumu Hirano’s repeat bid on the pipe is Australian Scotty James. Esther Ledecka of the Czech Republic is the GOAT and two-time defending champion in parallel giant slalom. American Red Gerard, the 2018 slopestyle champion, is in good form and looking for a return to the podium after finishing fourth in China.
Venues and dates
All of the action is at Livigino Snow Park with big air Feb 5-9, parallel giant slalom Feb. 8, the halfpipe Feb. 11-13, snowboardcross: Feb. 13 and 15 and slopestyle Feb. 16-18.
Memorable moments
This sport truly put itself on the map when the American trio of Ross Powers, Danny Kass and JJ Thomas swept the halfpipe podium in 2002 at the Salt Lake Games. The sport then belonged to White, whose third gold medal in 2018 in a narrow victory over Hirano stands out as one of the most dramatic contests the sport has seen. White retired after finishing fourth in an emotional farewell at the 2022 Games.
Fun facts
The Olympics added snowboarding to the program in 1998. One of its first champions, Ross Rebagliati, played right into the dude stereotype of snowboarders when he had his medal stripped after testing positive for cannabis, a decision overturned on appeal.
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AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics
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