Bardonecchia, Italy – Tyler Jewell’s Olympic story is not a heart-wrenching, life-and-death drama. He wasn’t forced to overcome a career-threatening injury, a shattered home or a scandalous past.
Rather, Jewell’s is a story of passion. It’s the story of an upper middle class kid – the son of a surgeon and private- school lacrosse player – who left an otherwise charmed life behind long enough to pursue his dreams and the Olympic ideal.
Sure, Jewell suffered his share of hard knocks en route to his first Olympic parallel giant slalom snowboard race, where he finished 11th behind champion Philipp Schoch of Switzerland on Wednesday. After graduating from Boston College in 2002, Jewell followed his heart back into the world of alpine snowboard racing, qualifying for U.S. Snowboarding’s C Team and a part-time job with Home Depot’s Olympic Job Opportunities Program before mediocre results and cuts to the alpine snowboarding budget left him with nothing more than a development team jacket and a zest for speed.
With no coach, no job and nowhere to go, he lived the snowboard bum’s life in the back of a rusted Toyota Land Cruiser in Hood River, Ore., surviving on donated PowerBars and losing 15 pounds until teammate Justin Reiter invited him to join the Steamboat Springs Winter Sports Club (SSWSC) three years ago. With the help of coaches Thedo Remmelink and Hans Berger there, Jewell got his groove back, ultimately qualifying as America’s only alpine racer on the men’s snowboard team.
“(I’m) not quite a snowboard bum, more like a guy following his destiny and having to overcome some obstacles,” Jewell, 29, said Wednesday after losing his Olympic duel to Dejan Kosir of Slovenia. “To me the coolest thing is I followed my heart through thick and thin, and everything worked out.”
Jewell’s heart has found a home in Steamboat, where he remained true to his passion by living in a tent on Remmelink’s property during summer months to save money he earned digging ditches and selling sausages at the New Mexico state fair for training and travel in winter months. He showered at the YMCA, ate cheap, nutritious meals at the local hospital and whiled away hours between training sessions at the public library before watching sunsets along the Yampa River and counting stars in the night sky for entertainment.
After feeling abandoned by the U.S. Snowboarding program, he also found the support he needed from coaches and teammates in Steamboat to fulfill his life’s ambition.
“I think in Steamboat Springs, Tyler has found his confidence again. His riding skills have also improved,” said Remmelink, who, coincidentally, earned his stripes in the coaching realm by training Kosir to overall World Cup and World Championship titles before moving to the SSWSC four years ago. “Team spirit is what brought Tyler back, and that is supported by technique.”
Jewell earned his spot on the Olympic team after a bitter duel with 2002 Olympic bronze medalist Chris Klug of Aspen. With a deep pool of strong halfpipe and snowboardcross competitors to select from, U.S. coaches chose to bring only one alpine racer on the men’s side, and both men had performed at nearly the same level in World Cup competition. It wasn’t until the courts upheld the U.S. team’s decision to select Jewell during arbitration filed by Klug in January that he knew for certain he would ride in Turin.
On race day, Jewell accented his U.S. Olympic uniform with a tattered red bandana, a symbolic gesture to former college lacrosse teammate Welles Crowther, who died on 9/11 after re-entering the World Trade Center several times to help rescue others.
“It’s been a very difficult road, and that’s what makes it so special to be here right now,” Jewell said. “To me if everything happened so easily, it’d be just another day. But this truly is special for me. I’m the only American here.”
Staff writer Scott Willoughby can be reached at 303-820-1993 or swilloughby@denverpost.com.
