Snowboarding halfpipe at Sochi: What a disgrace!

In what will surely go down as the biggest Olympic snowboarding upset in history, Shaun White has failed to win a medal in the halfpipe at Sochi, losing out to Iouri Podladtchikov from Switzerland and Japanese riders Ayumi Hirano (who is just 15 years old) and Taku Hiraoka.

In the lead up to Sochi, White had learnt a double cork 1440 to ensure he was untouchable in his race for the top of the podium.

Shaun was a sure thing to win gold in Sochi with this ace up his sleeve, but what no one banked on was the sub-standard halfpipe conditions on offer that would limit the riding ability of the entire field, even the two-time defending champion.

The level of progression in men’s snowboarding has been nothing short of astounding since the 2010 Olympics. Four years ago at the Vancouver halfpipe event, you needed a double cork 1080 rotation in your run to win gold.

Now every rider had back-to-back double cork 1080s in their bag of tricks, some had 1260s and others had new tricks they had invented along the way. This was meant to be snowboarding’s big chance to shine, but the riding on display was far from representative of the progression level the sport had achieved. Sadly the Olympics let them all down in a big way.

Imagine if you dedicated the past four years of your life training for an event, only to arrive at the Olympic site to a halfpipe that was hardly competitive and barely even ride able. For many this meant the run they had worked so hard at over the past four years was now no longer possible.

Tricks that they had been safely able to attempt in qualification events in the lead up to the Olympics were now no longer possible.

American rider Danny Davis summed up the collective feeling telling reporters: “That’s the shame of it all. All these kids, myself included, worked very hard to get here.

“And then the pipe is just no fun and boring. Halfpipe is super fun. But riding a crappy pipe and having to perform in it is the worst.”

So what went wrong with team Australia? Why didn’t we win a medal, you ask? Didn’t we have two world halfpipe champions competing in the men’s snowboard team?

Well yes we did. Nate Johnstone and Scotty James are both incredibly gifted snowboarders and easily the best halfpipe riders the country has to offer, but unfortunately they just don’t have the trick bag to match it with the sport’s elite.

Technically they both have been crowned world champions in halfpipe, but this was on the FIS (Federation of International Skiing) tour. To be crowned a world champ one needs to beat the best in the world and sadly the FIS tour just isn’t able to attract that sort of talent. More on that later…

Australia’s highest placed rider was a little known American resident by the name of Kent McCallister who finished ninth in the final. The Australian media spotlight was focused heavily on homegrown talents Scotty James and Nate Johnstone, while Kent slipped under the radar.

Having being born in Australia and relocating at a young age Kent, holds a dual citizenship and wisely chose to represent his country of birth. Interestingly, his great uncle is credited with inventing Vegemite, and Kent grew up riding and competing with the best halfpipe riders America has to offer.

All of our riders drew the shortest straw in having to compete for a finals spot through the more difficult and talented-stacked second qualification heat.

Out of the Australian contingent, Kent and Nate made it through this heat and onto the semi-final where the pipe got worse. As a result the standard of riding dropped as riders did their best just to land a run, risk free.

Kent finished in third and Nate just missed out finishing in seventh, with the top six going through to the final.

If you want a real indication of the poor halfpipe conditions in Sochi, then you need to look no further than Torah Bright’s older brother and coach of ten years, Ben.

Born and raised in Cooma, Ben Bright is a straight shooter who is not afraid to tell it like it is. Unlike the other coaches on the Australian team, Ben is not financed by the Australian Olympic Committee meaning he doesn’t have to toe the company line when it comes to interviews.

He let his true thoughts on Sochi’s halfpipe be known in an interview where he was quoted as saying:

“It’s actually very shit. It’s come down to the final hour, the final minute. The men’s contest is going live to the world and the Federation of International Skiing (FIS) has let ego get in the way of a good contest.

“They barely got it [right] in Vancouver [at the Olympics in 2010] and they haven’t got it here. Surprise surprise.”

Compare this to Australian head coach Ben Alexander who described the halfpipe as “real challenging” and you can see what I mean.

There has been a lot of criticism about the standard of course design in Sochi from the athletes themselves too. The halfpipe and slopestyle course have come under heavy fire, with even the sport’s most competitive rider Shaun White withdrawing from the slopestyle competition for fear of injury due to the poor design.

A lot of the finger pointing, as Ben Bright alludes to in the quote above, is squarely directed at the FIS. You see snowboarding has long been at war with the FIS.

The FIS is a ski-run organisation dictating the terms for snowboarding, a sport that they know little about in the world’s biggest arena, the Olympics.

Typically the sport’s elite only competes on the FIS tour in the two years prior to the Winter Olympics in order to gain the necessary qualification points. The general feeling within the snowboard community is the judging, prize money and quality of halfpipes and slopestyle courses on the FIS tour is laughable at best.

Snowboarding is officially governed by the TTR (Ticket To Ride), but for some absurd reason the IOC has elected to ignore this and have the FIS handle snowboard competition in the Olympics.

Questions have been raised as to why SnowPark Technologies (SPT) were not contracted to build the Olympic facilities, this is after all the team behind the X Games.

This was also the team that accompanied Shaun White on his trip to Australia to build him a private halfpipe to train in last year. Why would the FIS go with anyone other than the world’s best construction team if they were hosting the world’s most talented riders?

Warm temperatures in Sochi over the last few days also certainly didn’t help efforts to prepare an Olympic standard halfpipe. Competitors need hard icy walls for optimum riding and the warm slushy snow basically limits the speed, drive and line a rider can take up the pipe wall to launch into the air.

If you watched the event, you’d notice that competitors were frustrated with the lack of speed and bumpy condition of the pipe. These weren’t spoilt brats on show, these are frustrated athletes who are sadly the innocent bystanders of the sport’s backwards politics.

Final results:
1. Iouri Podladtchikov, 94.75 (Switzerland)
2. Ayumu Hirano, 93.50 (Japan)
3. Taku Hiraoka, 92.25 (Japan)
4. Shaun White, 90.25 (USA)
5. David Habluetzel, 88.50 (Switzerland)
6. Yiwei Zhang, 87.25 (China)
7. Wancheng Shi, 81.00 (China)
8.Tim-Kevin Ravnjak, 72.25 (Slovenia)
9. Kent Callister, 68.50 (Australia)
10. Danny Davis, 53.00 (USA)
11. Christian Haller, 51.50 (Switzerland)
12. Greg Bretz, 26.50 (USA)

Ryan Willmott is a former editor of Australian / New Zealand Snowboarder magazine with over 10 years of experience covering winter sport events.