The 2014 Winter Olympics have begun, and along with eleven other new events, slopestyle snowboarding is making its debut in Sochi. The Olympic committee decided to add this new event and others because they want to attract a younger generation of viewers. Following the lead of the X Games, the committee decided to bring in more energetic and engaging competition.
This sport is fast paced and dangerous to say the least; Shaun White withdrew from the event after sustaining a minor injury to his wrist, and was quoted by ESPN stating, “The potential risk of injury is a bit too much for me to gamble my other Olympics goals on.” Slopestyle is a combination of flips, jumps and rails, which allow the athletes to perform gravity-defying tricks and show off their unbelievable skills. Check out the video below for a quick Olympic introduction:
The scoring for slopestyle snowboarding is based off of flow, creativity, technical difficulty and style, and there are cuts after each round in order to choose a smaller group for the finals. Although this was the first year the event has been added to the Winter Olympic games, there was total of 52 contestants who traveled to Sochi in order to compete, seven of which were from the United States.
However, even after Shaun White withdrew from the event, the United States still managed to sweep the gold medals in the men’s and women’s competition. Jamie Anderson was declared the winner in the women’s event and Sage Kotsenburg for the men’s. Kotsenburg is credited for being not only the first gold medalist at the 2014 Winter Olympics, but also for being the first Olympic gold medalist in history for slopestyle snowboarding.
Both athletes have competed professionally before the Olympics; Anderson has racked up eight medals from the Winter X Games (4 gold, 2 silver and 2 bronze), and Kotsenburg has collected three medals of his own (2 silver and 1 bronze). Anderson also holds the title of the youngest medalist ever at the 2006 Winter X Games, when she won bronze at the age of 15.
The addition of ski and snowboarding slopestyle to the Winter Olympic games is a great thing; not only is it giving more athletes the opportunity to compete for their respective countries, but it is also giving viewers a chance to learn more about these exciting new sports. Other events being added this year include: ski halfpipe (men and women’s), snowboard parallel slalom (men and women’s), women’s ski jumping, biathlon mixed relay, a figure skating team event, and the luge team relay.
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Photo Credits:
http://img2-1.timeinc.net/people/i/2014/news/140224/sage-kotsenburg-600.jpg
http://media.philly.com/images/20140208-jamie-andersen.jpg