"Skiing has always been a rich kids' sport," Kosglow said. Ninety percent are single and 48 percent, he said, also participate in mountain biking. An online poll of 16,000 snowboarders showed 83 percent are male and 84 percent are between 12 and 24, according to SOL/Snowboarding Online editor Lee Crane. Statistics show that snowboarding appeals to a young, largely male audience that also enjoys mountain biking.
"We've integrated the skateboard style into the freestyle aspect of it." "The freestyle part of snowboarding I know draws a lot of skateboarders," Richards says. Halfpipe refers to a giant snow trough that launches skiers into the air the skiers are judged on the various acrobatic maneuvers they perform. Giant slalom involves racing down a course for speed. Olympic competition in snowboarding will feature both an alpine event giant slalom and a freestyle event the halfpipe competition. Snowboarding can best be described as a cross between surfing and skateboarding, with the major difference that snowboarders wear boots that clamp securely to their boards. With no disrespect to any other sport in the Winter Olympics," Kosglow, 24, said, "I think snowboarding will liven things up a bit." Many snowboarders consider skiing the bespectacled, stuffy uncle to their sport, and sports such as the biathlon even more dreary." That's when a man named Sherman Poppen fastened two pairs of skis together for his children to surf on the snow. An air of vindication hovers as Richards and fellow snowboarders Mike Jacoby, Sondra Van Ert and Lisa Kosglow discuss their sport, which was born in 1965. 7, the second day of Olympic competition. Snowboarding gets under way in Nagano on Feb. I'm still as much of a dork as I've always been, yet I'm going to be at the Olympics." "The Olympics are going to bring a legitimacy into this sport like no one can comprehend.
"We have been on this crazy quest for legitimacy for so long," said Richards, 27, the 1997 U.S. Almost 10 years ago, Parade magazine declared snowboarding "the worst new sport." They are still barred from a handful of resorts. Frequently perceived as daredevil adolescents who posed a threat to skiers, snowboarders were barred from most ski areas in the early 1980s. It is a message about acceptance.įor years, Richards and fellow snowboarders were treated like interlopers on the slopes. Richards is a prospective 1998 Winter Games athlete in snowboarding, a sport making its Olympic debut, and he has a message. His shoes are black and his socks are white. He is wearing sleek, aerodynamic sunglasses in a hotel conference room illuminated by artificial light. SALT LAKE CITY Todd Richards's bleached hair shoots up like sturdy blades of short grass. Snowboarders Want to Show Sport Has Grown Up
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