Ready for a trip to the ‘park’? Snowboarding set for its spotlight at the Winter Olympics
The events in what is called the park – half-pipe, slopestyle, big air – form the sport’s core, but there are two more that involve racing
The origins of snowboarding go back to Christmas Day, 1965, when an engineer named Sherman Poppen strapped two skis together to give his daughters something to do. He called it a “snurfer” and started selling them the next year.
Jake Burton came along, refined the toy and helped turn snowboarding into a mass-market sport. Along the way, superstars such as Shaun White and Chloe Kim redefined what could be done in the air and the sport is always reinventing itself in terms of tricks.
Here is what to expect as the Winter Olympics arrive.
How it works
There are three snowboarding events in what is called the park – half-pipe, slopestyle and big air – and two more that involve racing: snowboardcross and parallel giant slalom (PGS).
The park contests are the core of the sport. They are judged events that include qualifying and finals where riders are scored on the complexity of the tricks and how high they fly.
Snowboardcross is a rugged form of four-wide racing down a winding course and PGS is the closest this sport has to alpine skiing.
Whom to watch
The United States’ Kim is going for an unprecedented third straight title in the half-pipe.