Bardonecchia, Italy – Think of it as short track speedskating on steroids. And on snowboards.
That’s U.S. snowboardcross team member Nate Holland’s assessment of his Olympic discipline, the one he and his teammates hope will take the American and worldwide audience by storm as it makes its Winter Games debut today.
The rock ’em, sock ’em downhill derby – combining elements of freestyle snowboarding, alpine racing and high-flying motocross with four racers making their way down the track at once – has been a Winter X Games staple and fan favorite for years, and Holland expects nothing less during the Olympics.
“Those (short track) guys just turn left all day long,” Holland said this week during training. “Nothing against them; they’re great athletes as well. But we’re flying through the air side-by-side. It’s a man-sized course for sure.”
Holland, who boasts the physique of a strong safety, is the reigning X Games champion, eager as anyone to prove he belongs on an Olympic podium as well.
But the Californian has his work cut out for him.
The U.S. team includes the sport’s reigning world champion, Seth Wescott of Carrabassett Valley, Maine, a veteran of the event at age 29. And Jason Smith of Basalt is also a proven World Cup contender, to say nothing of the international field led by World Cup champion Xavier Delerue of France.
Here at the Olympics, the track already has proved itself a worthy adversary, claiming the right anterior cruciate ligament of American Jayson Hale from Sierraville, Calif., during a crash in training Tuesday on a formidable jump. Hale will be replaced by Graham Watenabe of Sun Valley, Idaho, who was in Italy to root on his teammates.
“After Jayson’s injury, I did just a couple of runs to understand this course a little bit more to get an idea,” Watenabe said. “Today I’ve been training a lot, and I’ve realized that it’s a very long and high-speed course.”
According to Wescott, the course length offers an Olympic-worthy challenge in endurance.
While most races on the World Cup and at the X Games last just over a minute, the Olympic race is expected to push riders nearly twice that long on the 700-meter course. And although it’s not the most technically demanding course the riders have faced, Wescott is hopeful the variety of features serve the snowboarding community by attracting young riders who recently have been exchanging all-mountain riding for the more urban attraction of rail slides and terrain parks.
“The whole urban movement in snowboarding is still a little bizarre to me,” Wescott said. “Those kids can slide on rails but they don’t really know how to snowboard, and this is going to highlight what it’s like to really be able to ride a board.”
No matter the long-term impact of this Olympic first, competitors agree today’s race will be the biggest in the history of the sport.
“It’s finally here,” Wescott said. “I look at this as the first step. We’re going to be able to put on a good show on this course and continue to progress the sport as well.”
Scott Willoughby can be reached at 303-820-1993 or swilloughby@denverpost.com.
