Author Topic: Vic Wild of Russia wins Olympic gold in men's snowboard parallel slalom  (Read 2289 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline bijou

  • Topic Moderator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 8937
  • Reputation: +336/-26
link

This is his second gold the only snowboarder ever to win two golds in one games

Quote
American-born snowboarder Vic Wild won gold in the men's parallel giant slalom on Wednesday, and he did it for Russia.

Without the income to continue his Olympic dream in the U.S., Wild switched national allegiances three years ago, marrying a Russian woman to secure citizenship in time for the 2014 Olympics.

While the United States is the most dominant snowboarding nation in the world when it comes to halfpipe and slopestyle, funding for alpine snowboarding — where riders race down a traditional mountain like slalom skiers — is nearly nonexistent.

The United States Snowboard and Freeski Association doesn't fund the sport like it does halfpipe, according to the Wall Street Journal. It's not in the X Games, meaning domestic corporate sponsorship dollars aren't there either. Justin Reiter, the lone American male alpine snowboarder in Sochi, worked as a pizza cook to finance his Olympic dream. ...

link



Offline Dori

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 7964
  • Reputation: +406/-39
Re: Vic Wild of Russia wins Olympic gold in men's snowboard parallel slalom
« Reply #1 on: February 22, 2014, 08:27:49 AM »
I've enjoyed watching the snowboard events.  When did it become an Olympic sport?  I guess I never paid it much attention before.


“How fortunate for governments that the people     they administer don't think”  Adolph Hitler

Offline bijou

  • Topic Moderator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 8937
  • Reputation: +336/-26
Re: Vic Wild of Russia wins Olympic gold in men's snowboard parallel slalom
« Reply #2 on: February 22, 2014, 10:59:44 AM »
I've enjoyed watching the snowboard events.  When did it become an Olympic sport?  I guess I never paid it much attention before.



I think this is the third or fourth Olympics with snowboarding, but some of the snowboard events are new this time.



Offline JohnnyReb

  • In Memoriam
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 32063
  • Reputation: +1997/-134
Re: Vic Wild of Russia wins Olympic gold in men's snowboard parallel slalom
« Reply #3 on: February 22, 2014, 03:58:17 PM »
I've enjoyed the snowboard and speed skating where 4 and 5 people are racing each other. Sort of like NASCAR with a little bumping, grinding and a crash now and then.
“The American people will never knowingly adopt socialism. But, under the name of ‘liberalism’, they will adopt every fragment of the socialist program, until one day America will be a socialist nation, without knowing how it happened.” - Norman Thomas, U.S. Socialist Party presidential candidate 1940, 1944 and 1948

"America is like a healthy body and its resistance is threefold: its patriotism, its morality, and its spiritual life. If we can undermine these three areas, America will collapse from within."  Stalin