With the snowboard Slopestyle and Halfpipe events over and done with, I feel like a lot of us in the snowboard industry are asking ourselves… was it all worth it? The Olympics this year have been covered in controversy, from financial complications to humanitarian issues, hilarious hygiene concerns to very serious terrorist threats. But one issue in particular that hit very close to home, and one that Yahoo! Sports had an excellent article about, found HERE, was the judging for the newly inaugurated Slopestyle event.
Being in its Olympic infancy, it was pretty obvious that not everything would run perfectly. The biggest concern that many of us considered to be in the “core” of snowboarding had was the fact that in the semifinals, riders like Sage Kotsenburg, who are among the most creative and stylish in the world, were getting low scores because the panel of skier judges just wanted to see who could spin the most. Thankfully Sage ended up getting a big win for snowboarding as a whole, but I feel uneasy about it…
As excited as I am that Mr. Kotsenburg ended up winning, it seems awfully strange to me that he did so. While I would have picked him to win right from the get go, because I for one think style and creativity is WAY more important than number of rotations, it seems like the judges completely changed how they judged the event in the time between the semifinals and finals. Is it okay for judges to completely change their criteria mid-Olympics? Was it fair to the other riders who prepared spin-to-win runs to have the carpet pulled out from under them? At the same time, was it fair to creative riders like Sage to not be pre-warned that the judges were looking for robotic runs? Was everything super flawed from the get go because the entire Olympic committee and judging staff is made up of skiers?
If that doesn’t make your head spin enough, Sochi decided to physically add to their inconsistencies with a sub-par halfpipe. Anyone watching the event, even if you’ve never seen halfpipe competitions, could tell the pipe was garbage. The transition into the walls had bumps and knuckles while the flat section in the middle was clearly full of ruts and uncared-for snow. Once again, the people at Yahoo! Sports, specifically writer Jeff Passan, hit the nail on the head with the following articles about this problem:
American snowboarder blasts Sochi halfpipe as ‘garbage’
It’s time for snowboarders to do one thing: Boycott the Sochi Games
While there are too many questions and controversies for this simple Salty Peaks blogger to comment on, what I can do in an attempt to give you an inside perspective is bring you the opinions of some of the industries best and brightest veterans. People who have seen the industry grow and develop over the years, for better and for worse. In my research, I realized that many of them are very against the Olympics, stating that it is an event snowboarding shouldn’t be a part of; that it’s unnecessary for this lifestyle that many call a sport.
This first video features some strong opinions from some of the most well-respected OGs in the game at the latest SIA trade show. I particularly loved Corey Smith’s thoughts on people who consider themselves “core” snowboarders and their lack of knowledge or respect for the history of snowboarding and the true pioneers from back in the day. But that’s just my opinion, so watch for yourself:
Snowboarding: Much More Than The Olympics
