Athlete Bios
Snowboarding
Hollingsworth: the future of U.S. women's snowboarding
Last Updated: Monday, February 8, 2010 | 3:36 PM ET
New York Times for CBC Sports
At only 18-years old, American snowboarder Ellery Hollingsworth has a bright Olympic future ahead of her. (Streeter Lecka/Getty Images)If the likes of Kelly Clark, Hannah Teter and Gretchen Bleiler represent the foundation of women’s snowboarding in the United States, Ellery Hollingsworth, 18, represents the potential.
A silver medallist at the 2006 junior world championships, Hollingsworth has been an upwardly mobile threat since a third-place finish in an American event two years ago in the United States Snowboarding Grand Prix at Tamarack, Idaho. Last winter, she finished fourth in the X Games superpipe. In the spring, she finished a career-best fourth at a World Cup event in Spain. She entered the 2009-10 season as a rising star with sudden and realistic Olympic medal aspirations.
Hollingsworth, from Darien, Conn., started snowboarding seriously after concussions put an end to her hockey aspirations. She attended the Stratton Mountain School in Vermont, which has churned out several Olympic snowboarders, and graduated last May. She has spent the last couple of winters living with the men’s snowboarder Steve Fisher, one of the top Americans, and his companion in Breckenridge, Colo., learning what it takes to be a competitive boarder on the world circuit.
Hollingsworth has been mentored by some of the best snowboarders in the world, many of them her potential American teammates. And as the United States starts to cede some of its dominance to countries that are now investing heavily in snowboarding — China chief among them — Hollingsworth represents the next wave of boarders trying to keep the sport tinted largely red, white and blue.
