| Salt Lake City |
 |
 |
| GER |
12 |
16 |
7 |
35 |
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| USA |
10 |
13 |
11 |
34 |
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| NOR |
11 |
7 |
6 |
24 |
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| CAN |
6 |
3 |
8 |
17 |
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| RUS |
6 |
6 |
4 |
16 |
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| AUT |
2 |
4 |
10 |
16 |
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| ITA |
4 |
4 |
4 |
12 |
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| FRA |
4 |
5 |
2 |
11 |
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| SUI |
3 |
2 |
6 |
11 |
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| NED |
3 |
5 |
0 |
8 |
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U.S. boarders eye qualifying
By Dennis Romboy
Deseret News staff writer
Qualifying for the 2002 U.S. Olympic snowboard team won't be the whirlwind affair it was four years ago.
Exhausted American athletes had no time to catch their breath between the harried trials and the 1998 Winter Games in Japan where snowboarding made its Olympic debut.
"It was just so go, go, go that I don't think we really had time to absorb the magnitude of the experience. We were in, out and back to the U.S. and before I knew it was, 'Wow, we were just at the Olympics,'" said Rosey Fletcher, an alpine racer from Girdwood, Alaska.
Qualifications for the 2002 team begin Sunday at Whistler, British Columbia, where alpine riders will compete in the first of five parallel giant slalom meets. A series of five halfpipe contests starting Dec. 14 at Mammoth Mountain, Calif., will decide the freestyle team. The roster will be in place Jan. 24, about two weeks before Olympic snowboard competition opens.
Halfpipe rider Ross Powers called the 1998 pace "kind of crazy." After making the team in a meet at Mammoth, he only had time to ship a few boxes home to South Londonderry, Vt., before winging across the Pacific Ocean.
"I feel this time having it in the U.S. is like being at home, so I don't think it's going to be a big deal. If we make (the team), I think it will be good. We can find out right then. Train somewhere for a week and then you're there," said Powers, who won a bronze medal in Nagano.
There likely won't be many surprises in the PGS qualifiers, but the halfpipe is wide open. Look for both men and women to do bigger and better tricks than ever before to earn a spot.
"If I ride decent to OK, I'll get to go. But there are so many variables. There are so many good riders anything could happen I think," said Kelly Clark, an 18-year-old halfpipe rider from Mount Snow, Vt., who won the U.S. Grand Prix series last year.
The United States led all nations with 15 Olympic quota spots based on International Ski Federation (FIS) or World Cup rankings released in November. Snowboarding is the only FIS-administered sport in which the Olympic field is limited.
American snowboarders qualified four men and for women in PGS and four men and three women in halfpipe. Because FIS rules allow a maximum of 14 from one nation to compete in Salt Lake City, U.S. coaches will have to decide how to use the slots — four in two events, three in the other two.
It will come down to who has the best chance to medal.
"I feel for the coaches who have to divvy up quota spots," said Sondra Van Ert, a former Utahn who made the 1998 team. "There's definitely four (alpine) women who could medal."
The U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association has placed a big burden on its athletes, letting it be known it expects 10 total medals from American snowboarders and skiers.
"I don't know that it adds extra pressure because I don't think there any one of the athletes who's not gunning for a medal anyhow," Van Ert said.
Getting another shot at the Olympics is what's driving PGS racer Chris Klug to attempt to make the team again. The Aspen, Colo., resident was sitting in prime position for a medal four years ago before crashing on his second run.
"Without a doubt its one of the big goals my career to win gold this February and I think it's one of the big motivating factors that's kept me around," he said.
Tommy Czeschin, a top halfpipe rider from Mammoth Lakes, Calif., narrowly missed qualifying for the 1998 team.
"It's a huge deal to me to even be able make the Olympics, to even have a shot at it. It would be awesome to be able to go."
E-mail: romboy@desnews.com
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December 5, 2001
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