Turin, Italy 2006 Winter Olympic Games

Olympic Snowboarding Analysis

BARDONECCHIA, Italy – This is like, so killer!

And awesome and gnarly and sick and, well, whatever else it is that teenagers like to say.

For the second straight day, a carefree, expressive 19-year-old American snowboarder swooshed to an Olympic gold medal in the halfpipe.

Hannah Teter of Belmont, Vt., got her turn on Monday. Showing off the stylish big-air tricks she learned from one of her four older brothers, she took the lead on the first of two runs in the final, then bettered that mark on her last run.

A day earlier, Californian Shaun White, aka "The Flying Tomato," soared to victory above the same halfpipe.

It seems like the only place where Americans are at all stoked in these Olympics is on the snowboarding mountain. Like the men before them, the women had a 1-2 finish, and barely missed a medals sweep.

While Bode Miller flopped, Michelle Kwan dropped out, Apolo Anton Ohno wiped out and Lindsey Kildow crashed, the snowboarders are carrying the load for the Americans. They've won two of four gold medals – speedskaters Chad Hedrick and Joey Cheek have the other – and four of six medals overall through three days of competition.

It must be something about the sport in which riders talk about "shredding" and "ripping" while performing tricks such as the Crippler, McTwist and the Rodeo flip, all to blaring music.

Maybe the success in the halfpipe is the jolt the rest of the Americans need. Or maybe they need to pick up on the attitude of the counterculture sport, which was invented by Americans and has been part of the Olympics since 1998.

A half hour before their medal runs, Teter and Gretchen Bleiler, who won the silver, jumped on a chair lift and rode to the top of the mountain to try to chill out.

"It was all about the powder-shredding, I think," Teter said. "It was just good. We kind of just relaxed on the lift, soaked up the sun and really just felt good."

And they felt a little bit like rebels.

"We got up there and we didn't realize the entire mountain was blocked off so we had to cut under some ropes – sorry, but we did – and we found some powder," said Bleiler, who admitted she had been a nervous wreck for three days. "That is snowboarding, so we got some powder in and we came down and she got a gold medal and I got a silver medal and voila!"

Coach Bud Keene didn't know his riders had gone up the mountain, but was pleased when Teter reported: "Oh, it was a sick powder run."

And just before she made her final run, Bleiler took an extra moment to fumble around with her iPod, making sure she had Green Day's "Holiday" cued up.

A day earlier, Teter and Bleiler watched the men's competition from the DJ booth.

"It was so good watching the boys yesterday getting their medals, and we just had a fine time," Teter said.

"We were trying to get a feel for the whole thing. We didn't know what to expect coming here and seeing all the people and all the cameras. So we just kind of got the preview show and got used to it and I think it really helped prepare us."

Teter essentially won the gold medal on her first run in the finals, when she scored a 44.6.

After watching Bleiler hit a 43.4 on her second run, Teter knew she had the gold medal, but still wanted to finish strong.

"It was like, 'Whoa, I'm going to have to step it up,' " she said. "I just wanted to, you know, do my thing and just go as big as possible and totally represent, like my brother Abe who helped me with my style so much throughout my career. Thank you."

Teter danced around a little bit before swooping into her final ride, hitting a frontside 540 followed by a frontside 900, for a score of 46.4.

Asked what winning the medal meant, Teter said: "I might actually be able to purchase a boat now, do some wakeboarding. I might smile a little bit brighter, get my teeth brightened for the cameras. I'm still going to do my yoga."

The only bummer on a brilliant day in the Alps was that defending gold medalist Kelly Clark wiped out while trying to stick a 900-degree spin, or 2 1/2 rotations, at the end of an otherwise high-flying second run in the finals. She finished fourth.

"I had the best run of my life up until that point," Clark said. "Even that 9 was the best one I've ever done. I just came up a little short and didn't land."

Norway's Kjersti Buaas swooped in with an impressive second run to take the bronze.

"I just dropped in and heard them say I was the last European to split up the Americans," Buaas said. "I went, 'Ooh, all of Europe is depending on me, so I just have to get speed and try to go big, because they have so many tricks.' "

If snowboarding was hot coming into the Turin Games, look at it now.

"These are the best riders in all the world," Bleiler said. "But the Americans, we have such a deep field in both the men's and women's halfpipe. Everybody is pushing everyone every day and the sport is progressing at an amazing rate. We're doing a good job. That's all I've got to say."

Updated on Monday, Feb 13, 2006 7:26 pm, EST

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