The U.S gold medal sweep of the snowboarding events at the Turin Winter Games continued today when Maine rider Seth Wescott won the first medal presented in the Olympic sport of snowboard cross.
A free-for-all, four-athlete race over bumps, jumps and turns, snowboard cross joined the Olympic lineup this year. Wescott, the reigning world champion, easily qualified in each of his heats and then came from behind to win the gold medal.
“It probably won’t even set in for a while,” he said. “It’s an amazing thing.”
The start of the race is critical in snowboard cross. In the final, Slovakia’s Radoslav Zidek was able to jump into the lead – a position normally taken by Wescott. Biding his time down the course, Wescott waited for a turn about two-thirds of the way through and shot past Zidek. From there to the bottom, the two battled until Wescott put some distance between them. Right at the bottom, though, Zidek made a last push and almost overtook the American at the finish.
“Radoslav seemed like he was riding super good,” Wescott said. “I was a little late on my start, I just knew if I was patient and confident that I’d reach the part of the course that I could work a little better, catch the speed on him. Then coming into that one turn, I dove the inside line on him like clockwork.”
Wescott’s gold is the third for the U.S. in as many snowboarding events during the Games. Shaun White and Hannah Teeter won the men’s and women’s halfpipe events, respectively, earlier in the week. The U.S. now has a total of five of the possible nine snowboarding medals this week.
Three of the four U.S. snowboard cross riders advanced to the quarterfinals. Only Graham Watanabe was unable to move forward. In the quarters, Wescott and Basalt boarder Jason Smith were able to advance. Nate Holland did not. In the semifinals, Wescott and Smith were in the same heat. Wescott took his usual place in the lead early, but French rider Paul-Henri Delerue was able to slip in front. That dropped Smith to third. Only the top two riders advance to the finals. Wescott was left to ride for the U.S. And that he did.
“I think what we’re bringing into the Olympics this year with the addition of snowboardcross is the opportunity to put something out there especially for the American public where everyone gets it,” said Wescott. “With halfpipe, the average person watching it isn’t necessarily going to understand the intricacies of the tricks, the style factors and all that kind of stuff.
“But here’s something – especially for our nation that loves NASCAR, loves racing, loves motorsports – where they’re just going to see live, head-to-head racing, and I think it’s going to be an exciting show for them.”
Wescott, who finished second Saturday to American teammate Nate Holland of Olympic Valley, Calif., considers this season a sort of second coming of snowboardcross. The sport suffered a bit of an identity crisis in 2002, when the Swatch Boardercross Tour – the discipline’s premier forum at the time – and the International Snowboarding Federation tour folded. The International Ski Federation (FIS) has since offered the only major competitive events outside of the X Games, and Wescott thinks the sport has been set back as a result.
