Snowboard

At resorts and terrain all over the world there is a friendly rivalry between skiers and snowboarders. Snowboarding is the newer discipline that took off around the world around the same time the sport was introduced to the Olympic Games as an official event at Nagano 1998. The discipline is extremely popular with youth.

In 2002 at Salt Lake City, halfpipe was contested as the freestyle event, but the alpine event of parallel giant slalom replaced the giant slalom event of 1998. At Torino, snowboard cross made its extremely successful debut. Cypress Mountain above West Vancouver will be where all the snowboard action takes place. The best riders from the World Cup and Extreme Sport Circuit have been dreaming of this moment since the Torino Games closed.

Australia and Snowboard

Australia is becoming a real force in snowboarding thanks to the Olympic Winter Institute of Australia and amazing athletes like Torah Bright. For several years now Bright and Holly Crawford have been amongst the top female halfpipers in the world. Not to be outdone by the ladies Nathan Johnstone in his first World Cup season (08/09) finished ranked No.2 in the world. Torino Olympian Johanna Shaw is a regular top 10 finisher in parallel giant slalom. And in the exciting world of snowboard cross Damon Hayler, who was unlucky not to medal at Torino, is now joined in World Cup finals by Alex Pullin.

Australia was represented at the Olympic when snowboarding made its debut at Nagano 1998 by Zeke Steggall. Competing in the giant slalom he placed 28th from a field of 34. He went on to represent Australia at Salt Lake 2002 and achieved his best result of 26th in PGS.

Australia had a record nine athletes in snowboard at Torino 2006 as Torah Bright, Holly Crawford, Johanna Shaw and Emily Thomas became Australia's first Olympic female representatives. Bright was the best placed finisher in fifth.

Competition Format / Events

Halfpipe
The halfpipe event is held on a half-cylindrical tube shaped into the snow. It is approximately 120-130 m long with a gradient of 16-17%. Using speed gained on the slope, snowboarders come up over the rim of the pipe to perform jumps, rotations and other mid-air manoeuvres or tricks. The object is to perform difficult There are five judges assessing standard air, rotation, total judging of height and amplitude of manoeuvres, technical merit, incidental falls and overall impression. The sum of the five judges’ scores becomes the total score.

The halfpipe competition is based on a format with two runs for qualification, semifinal and final. Each phase will have two (2) runs of which the best one will count.

Qualification
There will be one heat for the ladies and two heats for the men. After the second run, the top 6 ladies and top 6 men (3 from each heat) will immediately advance to the finals. Riders ranked 7-18 for the ladies and 4-9 from each heat for the men will run a semifinal with two runs. A rider who does not start (DNS) or who is disqualified (DSQ) in qualification run 1 is not allowed to start in qualification run 2.

Semifinal
The top 6 ladies and top 6 men advance to the finals. All riders who do qualify for the final are ranked according to a) their results in the semifinal, b) their results in the qualification.

Final
Twelve qualified riders start the final run 1 according to the FIS seeding rules for the halfpipe final. The top 6 riders who qualified directly from the qualification are the last 6 to start. For the second run, riders start in reverse order of the final run 1 results. The finalists are ranked according to the best of the two run results during the final.

Parallel giant slalom
The parallel giant slalom is a competition in which two riders race down the same slope on two parallel courses, outlined with gates and triangular flags, blue on the left course and red on the right course. The setting of the courses, the terrain and snow coverage must be as identical as possible. The vertical drop between the start and finish lines must be between 120 and 200 metres. There are two phases in PGS for each event: qualification and finals.

Qualification
The qualification will be run on parallel courses. These courses are the same or similar to the parallel finals courses, such as the number of gates, fall line, gate distance and inclination. The qualification consists of two runs: the qualification run (1st run) and the elimination run (2nd run). All qualified riders (those with a valid time registered) from the qualification run start in the elimination run - on the opposite course in reverse order of their rank. The top 16 ranked riders according to the combined time of the two runs qualify to the finals. Two valid runs are necessary to participate in the final.

Final
Two competitors ride simultaneously side-by-side down the courses in the parallel giant slalom final. All parallel finals heats consist of two runs. The competitors change courses for the second run. The loser of the first run starts with a time delay, which corresponds to his or her time behind the winner of the first run. A competitor, who does not start, does not finish or is disqualified in the first run, starts the second run with the penalty time delay.

The parallel giant slalom finals consist of 1/8 finals (8 pairs), quarter-finals (4 pairs), semifinals (2 pairs), consolation rounds 5th–8th (2 pairs), and finals (2 pairs): a small and big final (bronze and gold medal rounds), classifications 5th–6th place, classifications 7th–8th place. The winners of the 1/8 final heats qualify to the quarterfinals. The losers of the 1/8 final heats are ranked 9th–16th according to their qualification times. The winners of the quarter-finals qualify to the semifinals. The losers of the quarter-finals qualify to the consolation round heats for 5th–8th place. The winners of the semifinals qualify to the big final (gold and silver medal). The losers of the semifinals qualify to the small final (bronze medal).

Snowboard Cross
Competitors race down a challenging course including jumps and obstacles, so named because it combines halfpipe and PGS and makes reference to cross-country. Competitors must be skilled not only in the alpine skills of parallel GS, but also in the acrobatic skills necessary to negotiate the series of banks, jumps, and other obstacles on the course. A series of blue and red gates and triangular flags marks the course and indicate entrances to obstacles.

In the first two runs, the athletes compete individually. The 32 athletes with the best individual or combined times of the two qualification runs advance to the finals, where they compete in heats of four riders. The first two athletes to reach the finishing line in each heat advance to the next stage of the finals.

To win the gold medal an athlete must progress through three rounds and then win the final. The bib numbers in the each heat of four (finals) correspond to the rider’s rank in the qualification.

Depending on their bib numbers, the riders will be given bib colours (best qualifier gets red, second gets blue, third gets yellow and last gets black) and choose the position in the starting gate for each heat of the finals. According to the qualification time, the best rider of a heat chooses his/her lane first (lowest bib number), the 2nd best chooses second (second lowest bib number), and so on. The top two riders from each heat advance to the next round.

A re-run of the big final (gold medal) will take place in the event that all four riders did not finish the heat or are disqualified. If two or more riders have an unbreakable tie (photo-finish) in the medal round (big final), they receive the same medal.