FTA2R Posted February 18, 2014 Report Share Posted February 18, 2014 http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304899704579389243585521738 We don't have even 1 female going? None of them qualified or the program's totally dead? Sad. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Puddy Tat Posted February 18, 2014 Report Share Posted February 18, 2014 Great article. I find it interesting the number of athletes that are competing outside of their countries. It's unfortunate that there is a perceived lack of interest in alpine, for many of the reasons mentioned. That being said I think running gates suffers the same sort of problems that rock climbing does in that it's fun to do, but less fun to watch. This is the primary reason why rock climbing was dropped from the X-Games. The difficulty of what was being done just wasn't apparent to anyone who wasn't involved in the sport. Like I've mentioned on here before, I'd love to see alpine bring back a Super-G style event. Perhaps running exactly the same course the downhill ski racers use. Hell, make it an open event such that hardboot and softboot racers are running the same course. Hmmm take it one step further and its almost a Red Bull Style idea. A challenging Super-G Open-Equipment race on a course similar to what is in Sochi, the top skiers and snowboarders (hard and soft) in the world, only one rider on the course at a time, fastest time wins. I'd watch that. Dave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lonbordin Posted February 18, 2014 Report Share Posted February 18, 2014 Great article. Thanks for the post FTA2R! Two sections REALLY caught my eye- Participants say lack of support from the USSA is a factor. "If we disappeared, they would probably be thankful for it, because they wouldn't have to deal with us at all," Reiter says. "I don't mean that in a bad way. They just would like to put their emphasis on other things." USSA Spokesman Tom Kelly suggested the funding changes for alpine snowboarding reflected interest and participation. "The focus in snowboarding in America is very centric to halfpipe and slopestyle," he said. Kelly declined to say how much of USSA's budget goes to alpine snowboarding. B*** S***! How many resorts have a full-sized competition halfpipe? How many have a halfpipe team w/coaching? How much is zero? Here Tom let me FTFY... The focus in snowboarding in America is very centric to what we (the vendors) think will sell the best. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigwavedave Posted February 18, 2014 Report Share Posted February 18, 2014 Great article, thanks for posting. He really got it right. Maybe this story will snowball, especially if both Justin and Vic get on the podium. The U.S. is the only country whose government doesn't provide support for their athletes, forcing our athletes to beg for the limited funding out there. I guess we're still trying to prove that capitalism is better than the other isms, cause long gone is the day of the well-to-do amateur taking time away from their normal life and paying their own way to the games. Mimi won't say this, but I will; There was a quota of a maximum of 24 athletes from the U.S. for all of the snowboarding events. The IOC ruled that Shawn White, who qualified for 2 events, would count as 2 athletes, essentially elbowing Mimi out, as she was the next in line of qualified athletes. Then, when White decided to drop out of slopestyle, the IOC ruled it too late for a substitution. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michelle Posted February 19, 2014 Report Share Posted February 19, 2014 Germany is sending 5 alpine riders to the Olympics. We sent one, and barely not because they don't have the results, the willpower, or trained less. Only because as bigwavedave said, they have to live out of their trucks and beg for any funding necessary, or break the bank of their parents and family. It really shouldn't be that way and USSA needs to separate the disciplines of snowboarding like they do for skiing. Slopestyle, halfpipe, and downhill should all be separate then maybe there would be more space for just 24 SNOWBOARDERS total. :( Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snowmatic Posted February 19, 2014 Report Share Posted February 19, 2014 We had live pictures of qualify runs from women and men. Exceptional nice weather today and after rain Yesterday evening and a clear sky during the night, we have a perfect hard and gripy slope. Someones talked about icy. There can be seen trenches on slope, so it's not realy icy! Just as discused here: 1. Andrey Sobolov (Russia) 2. Vic Wild (Russia) Justin Reiter was not able to reach the finals (24.) Canadians JJA and Morison are some places behind and will go for finals. Woman league: not one single US girl on starter list. Leason, Calve and Lavigne from Canada are qualified. Final showdown starts now in about 25 minutes! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
terekhov Posted February 19, 2014 Report Share Posted February 19, 2014 with GOLD, Victor Ivanovich Zavarzin with bronze, Alyonka Zavarzina Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snowmatic Posted February 19, 2014 Report Share Posted February 19, 2014 Russia has now the first official Olympic Gold medalist on Snowboard. His name is Vic Wild ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlueB Posted February 19, 2014 Report Share Posted February 19, 2014 Right on! Wild Vic, wild performance. Go Russia! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
philw Posted February 19, 2014 Report Share Posted February 19, 2014 .... The focus in snowboarding in America is very centric to what we (the vendors) think will sell the best. Well it is the olympics, right? You know, the one with McDonalds and Coca Cola as the official health food sponsors. It's not about the sport, chaps! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kieran Posted February 19, 2014 Report Share Posted February 19, 2014 nice final run. got a bit of transition air in the middle, good stuff. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
patmoore Posted February 19, 2014 Report Share Posted February 19, 2014 98 events at Sochi. Americans are in all but four. Two of those are Alpine Snowboarding. Medal count this morning? US 21, Russia 21. The US Ski and Snowboard Association should be embarrassed. Congrats to Vic. This is a story that NBC should be airing but I haven't seen any coverage. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lowrider Posted February 19, 2014 Report Share Posted February 19, 2014 Difficult to watch people you know get so close to achieving a life goal only to miss it by such a small margin. The good side in my opinion is the conditions were better than the last Olympics and as a result a fairer competition. The announcers CBC used were terrible as they had very little knowledge of the sport, the gates or the equipment. With the obvious contradiction in disciplines BX vs GS it is important that the excitement created by the crashes in BX will always be more exciting than Slalom or GS to the untrained spectators. The announcers need to do a better job of describing the technical aspects of each heat as well as the different equipment each athlete chooses to compete with. I encourage anyone interest in taking the time to contact CBC sports to offer up names of individuals who would make better spokespersons (commentators) for the sport in future broadcasts. If we don't educate at all levels our sport will suffer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gdboytyler Posted February 19, 2014 Report Share Posted February 19, 2014 Great story. Congrats to Vic Ivan Wild. If the cold war was still going on, the (smoking hot) Russian wife would have been a KGB agent whose mission was to turn an American snowboarder. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigwavedave Posted February 19, 2014 Report Share Posted February 19, 2014 Proof that financial support of athletes and monetary rewards for winning are a "performance enhancing substance" and clearly should be banned from international competition!:rolleyes: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NMU Alpine Boarder Posted February 19, 2014 Report Share Posted February 19, 2014 Great to see Vic's success... Sad, but at this point, I am very, VERY worried for the US Alpine options going into South Korea in 4 years... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michelle Posted February 19, 2014 Report Share Posted February 19, 2014 I am very, VERY worried for the US Alpine options going into South Korea in 4 years...Winters kids!http://www.bomberonline.com/resources/sponsoredriders/winters.html And I think, and bigwavedave can correct me, but Mimi is going to try again for Korea. Not sure about Justin just yet, as I'm sure he's still reeling from all the excitement! We've also got a lot of young folks that are involved in the sport and training with a few teams around the country. Maggie Carrigan, Meghan Graham, and a few others are all potentials for Korea! What we have to do now is convince USSA that alpine snowboarding is worth separating into it's own discipline. We've got 4 years to do it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lonbordin Posted February 19, 2014 Report Share Posted February 19, 2014 Some groups are already preparing ( http://vimeo.com/86190605 ) and they're going to have home court advantage. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan Posted February 19, 2014 Report Share Posted February 19, 2014 Wow, go Vic! Sorry the US Ski/Snowboard Association let you down and you had to give up your citizenship to make this happen, but awesome result and maybe it was just the kick in the butt those guys need. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FTA2R Posted February 19, 2014 Author Report Share Posted February 19, 2014 It seems that this story is getting some traction.....have done a number of searches and Vic Wild is coming up quite a bit. Of course, it's not everyday that you and your wife medal, so that aspect helps as well. Just found this one: http://www.mensjournal.com/magazine/an-uphill-battle-for-u-s-olympic-snowboard-racers-20140131 Maybe it'll take something like an American medalling for Russia to get those dumbasses to start contributing some money to our discipline. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
patmoore Posted February 19, 2014 Report Share Posted February 19, 2014 Winters kids!http://www.bomberonline.com/resources/sponsoredriders/winters.html And I think, and bigwavedave can correct me, but Mimi is going to try again for Korea. Not sure about Justin just yet, as I'm sure he's still reeling from all the excitement! We've also got a lot of young folks that are involved in the sport and training with a few teams around the country. Maggie Carrigan, Meghan Graham, and a few others are all potentials for Korea! What we have to do now is convince USSA that alpine snowboarding is worth separating into it's own discipline. We've got 4 years to do it. This site needs a LIKE button! I like your thinking Michelle. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SunSurfer Posted February 19, 2014 Report Share Posted February 19, 2014 (edited) This is one of the best stories of the Olympics. It has politics. This is Putin's absolute biggest nose thumb at the Americans. It has the overcoming of difficulties and the realising of potential. It has the husband & wife both winning medals. It has the riders respecting Vic's win and what he's had to do to achieve it. And the aspect of the underfunding of alpine boarding in the USA keeps coming up, in pretty much all the news reports I see. For alpine snowboarding in the US, Vic Wild's victory may the best thing that ever happened. Some people say politics and sport don't mix. At Olympic level, politics and sport are irrevocably intertwined. Edited February 20, 2014 by SunSurfer typos Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NMU Alpine Boarder Posted February 19, 2014 Report Share Posted February 19, 2014 Winters kids!http://www.bomberonline.com/resources/sponsoredriders/winters.html And I think, and bigwavedave can correct me, but Mimi is going to try again for Korea. Not sure about Justin just yet, as I'm sure he's still reeling from all the excitement! We've also got a lot of young folks that are involved in the sport and training with a few teams around the country. Maggie Carrigan, Meghan Graham, and a few others are all potentials for Korea! What we have to do now is convince USSA that alpine snowboarding is worth separating into it's own discipline. We've got 4 years to do it. Oh, with our sport, there will always be someone who is willing to work their rear off to make it to the Olympics... Winning a medal is a feat that will never be outdone... That draw alone is enough to get people to do the sport... It's great to see Bomber get behind riders like this... I was referencing that our sports sanctioning body barely acknowledges that our sport exists... The feeder system is horribly flawed... Once kids go through that, they are told that they have to have deep pockets to continue onto the world stage... That is not right... What goes on with USSA would be like USA Track&Field saying that they are going to give Sprinters more funding but they are telling the guys that throw the Javelin and do Triple Jump will have their funding cut because they aren't as popular... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigwavedave Posted February 20, 2014 Report Share Posted February 20, 2014 (edited) Michelle's got it right--alpine snowboarding needs to finalize the divorce from the freeestylers. We can still be friends, but it just isn't working out. Nordic skiing begat alpine skiing begat freestyle skiing--all have separate Olympic quotas, few or no athletes compete in both. It's time surf inspired alpine snowboarding got a divorce from skateboard inspired halfpipe/slopestyle and let the bastard stepchild boardercross decide who they want to live with to keep the quotas balanced. Apparently this is a IOC rule that needs to be changed, not USSA or USOC, and since they just added two new events, PSL and slopestyle it seems a valid argument to separate the quotas as in skiing. Just watched Ligity do a huge victory lay down carve at the bottom of the GS! Just like an alpine snowboarder! Scott Hamilton needs to take a pill. Edited February 20, 2014 by bigwavedave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Puddy Tat Posted February 20, 2014 Report Share Posted February 20, 2014 It's time surf inspired alpine snowboarding got a divorce from skateboard inspired halfpipe/slopestyle and let the bastard stepchild boardercross decide who they want to live with to keep the quotas balanced. :lol::lol::lol::lol: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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