Snowboarding GS Preview

Giant Slalom: The Speed Freaks

Then there are the racers. Snowboard racing is modeled after ski racing, and follows in the lines of Dual Slalom (DS), Giant Slalom (GS) and Super G.

Luckily for the North Americans, Giant Slalom was the discipline incorporated into the Olympics first. The Europeans have been racing and training Dual Slalom while the North Americans have been more focused on Giant Slalom and Super G.

Rosey cheeked

American Freaks
The Americans have some damn fast racers. Chris Klug has had a great season and looks to be headed to Nagano with his first World Cup win of the season coming just weeks before the opening ceremonies.

Lisa Kosglow lives for speed

The American women should pull off a podium. The combined power of Rosey Fletcher (Ian's girl), who won the first Grand Prix Olympic qualifier; Lisa Kosglow, unbeaten on the '97 American Snowboard Tour [Hear her interview from Sugarloaf '96]; Sondra Van Ert, the GS gold medalist at the '97 FIS World Championships [Hear her interview from the '97 Whistler World Cup]; and, Betsy Shaw, with six wins, and 14 top-three finishes in the last three seasons [Hear her interview from Snowmass '97], will ensure a powerful female GS presence in Nagano. And they all deserve to go.

Mark Fawcett, Controlled agression

Canadian Freaks
For the Canadians, Mark Fawcett is the man. He's consistent, political, and a proud icon for all snowboarders. He will best represent Canada and probably podium. He trains with the young, balls out, Jasey Jay Anderson [Hear his interview in Sugarloaf '96 and Snowmass '97], who will either win or die trying. The Canadian Federation has harnessed his fiery youth and they're thinking of selling off some of Jasey's energy for profit during the off season. Fawcett and Anderson are consistently a twin power force to be reckoned with.

Then there's Darren Chalmers (wing-nut) and Ross Rebagliati, who round out the impressive Canadian team.

The women's team also has a couple of proud speed freaks, including Candice Drouin and Alison Clark but, unfortunately, it looks like no one has enough FIS points to earn a spot for GS women to represent Canada.

Fast Girls

Euro Freaks
Their expertise lies in Dual Slalom, where the Europeans have been training and racing that event as much as Giant Slalom for the last few years. Now, however, everyone is focused on Giant Slalom and there are quite a few speed demons to watch.

Austria will podium. My fear is that the Austrians will do to snowboarding what Austria has done to Skiing — dominate the sport.

The first female to watch is Brigitte "Gitte" Koech. She's tall and fast. Christine Rauter could join Gitte for the Austrians. Then there is the points leader, Karine Ruby of France. [Hear her interview at the '97 Whistler World Cup] Karine has been having an excellent season and has already won three World Cups (as of mid Jan.). At this rate she'll be hard to beat. Martina Magenta is always in the running and should be representing Italy. But... let's get back to the Austrians. First and foremost is Martin Freinadametz. Known as "The Dominator", Martin has been known to show up in Gorilla suits next to his neoprene suited competitors and still pull out the win. This guy just loves it all.

Dieter Happ Austrian trained, race approved

Outspoken against the FIS, Freinadametz will hopefully still represent Austria in Nagano. And he'll have a tough time against Italy's Nicolas Conte, who's burning up the World Cup circuit and is second in points to Canada's Fawcett. Conte may be the man to watch.

But, let's not exclude the Dieters — Happ and Krassnig or Harald Walder, Peter Pechacker and Karl-Heinz Zangler. They all represent Austria and all regularly place top ten. Mein Gott sei sind stark.

— Hans Prosl, Snowboard Editor