Winter Olympics

Shaun White making his mark on snowboarding history during the Winter Olympics.

Snowboarding made its Olympic debut in the 1998 Winter Games in Nagano, Japan with a total of four competitions divided into two categories: men's & women's half pipe and men's & women's giant slalom.

Two types of competition were originally chosen to be part of the Olympic Games reflecting two very different styles of snowboarding. The half pipe competition represents freestyle snowboarding, and the giant slalom represents alpine snowboarding.

Freestyle snowboarding is practiced by the overwhelming majority of snowboarders, while alpine snowboarding is a dedicated racing and carving discipline with its own specialized technique and equipment.

For the 2002 Games in Salt Lake City, the giant slalom was replaced with the parallel giant slalom, and the half pipe competition incorporated a larger sized half pipe, known as a super pipe.

A third discipline, Snowboard Cross, was added for the Torino Games. Four riders at a time race down the course passing through gates, pumping over rollers and launching off of jumps. Whoever crosses the finish line first will take home Gold.

Winter Olympics~Controversy~Calendar