New Winter Olympic Event – Snowboard SlopeStyle


The Winter Olympics are quickly approaching and new to the Games this year will be the Snowboard Slopestyle event. The event will debut with 30 male and 24 female snobwoarders at the upcoming Sochi 2014 Winter Games. The event features athletes doing tricks at insane heights, riding rails and performing at a level worthy of an Olympic medal. It’s truly something you have to see to believe.

olympic snowboarding slope style

The competition has three rounds… Qualification, Semi-Final and Finals. Each athlete has two runs in each round and the highest score of the two determines their placing. They are scored on the variety and execution of their tricks, amplitude, difficulty and landing. The highest scoring run in the final wins.

NBC analyst, Bob Costas has referred to this new event as ‘Jackass’ stuff on a recent TODAY show interview. We respect his right to an opinion and his contributions to sports over the years but c’mon man. Bob clearly needs to spend some time on the slopes and educate himself. Matt Lauer isn’t much better as he laughs it up like a giddy toddler watching a dog eat popcorn. Thankfully the clueless duo won’t be calling the action on this event in Sochi. NBC has since pulled the interview down citing “usage restrictions” but like anything on the Internet it lives on.

The final Olympic qualifiers are schedule to take place this week in Mammoth, California. There will be two qualifiers due to events being cancelled last week in Breckenridge, Colorado. It’s been a bit of a challenge for event organizers due to lack of snow in California and too much snow in Colorado (the cause of the Breck cancellation). The U.S. team rosters should be finalized and announced this weekend. A confusing set of rules left the snowboarder out in the cold after the event was cancelled. The skiing qualification round counted for the final placings however a different set of rules didn’t allow for that to be the case in snowboarding.

Jamie Anderson slope style snowboarding dew tour

Jamie Anderson after winning the 2013 Dew Tour.

Jamie Anderson leads the women’s Snowboarding slope style heading into the final two events. Ty Walker and Jessika Jenson are close behind in the current point totals. On the Men’s side of things, Chas Guldemond leads with rockstar snowboarder Shaun White in second.

Lead image via youtube.






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