Athlete Bios
Snowboarding
Game show appearance gave Vito more confidence on the hill
Last Updated: Wednesday, February 10, 2010 | 10:20 AM ET
New York Times for CBC Sports
Louie Vito is one of the few boarders that can execute back-to-back double corks. (Jed Jacobsohn/Getty Images)If Louie Vito can make it to the Olympics in the halfpipe competition, there is a good chance he will finish higher than he did on last fall's Dancing with the Stars.
And he may just have the hit television show to thank for that.
Vito, 21, emerged at the beginning of the snowboarding season as the biggest threat to Shaun White's long-held dominance in the halfpipe. White, the 2006 Olympic champion, has name recognition and a bagful of cutting-edge tricks.
Turns out that Vito has those, too.
"It's funny," Vito said after finishing second to White in the United States Snowboarding Grand Prix at Copper Mountain, Colo., in early December. "I'll go places, even snowboarding events, and moms will know me more for being on Dancing with the Stars than being a snowboarder."
His challenge to White's supremacy will only boost Vito's popularity. White and Vito entered the winter as the rare riders who could routinely land the season's must-have trick - back-to-back double corks, a sort of side-winding double back flip done on successive tricks during the run. With the rest of the field scurrying to catch up, it seems very likely that any gold-medal run - and maybe all the runs needed to land on the podium - will feature a variation of the back-to-back double cork.
"Shaun's is more flippy, and mine has a little more spin into it," Vito said. "It's hard to explain. You've got to watch it. They're both double corks. They're just done with a little different style and flavour on it."
Vito, who stands five feet five inches tall but has a gymnast's muscular build, seems perfectly suited for the halfpipe's next trend: inverted tricks. For years, riders have spun themselves silly, turning 360s (one full rotation) into 720s and 1080s. With the wow factor waning, more and more riders are spinning themselves upside down, flipping and corkscrewing their way into the hearts of fans - and judges.
That is something Vito did on Dancing with the Stars. While it could have been a train wreck of a cross-promotion - a young, long-haired snowboarder meets a ballroom-dance contest aimed at middle-age America - Vito pulled it off with aplomb.
He finished in the middle of the pack, and was eliminated eighth, between the actress Melissa Joan Hart and the former NFL receiver Michael Irvin. Donny Osmond ultimately won.
Some questioned Vito's decision to join the show - something he had long wanted to do - because of its potential impact on his snowboard training. If anything, it helped, Vito said.
"It really helped with my nerves, you know, because you're doing something that you're not confident with," Vito said after finishing behind White at Copper Mountain. "You have really not that much self-esteem dancing in front of 22 million viewers every week, and that live audience. When you get up to the top of the pipe, you're like: OK, I know how to do this, I know what I'm doing, I've done it so many times before. Why are you nervous? Oh, I'm not nervous. OK, go."
There is only one place where the spotlight might shine brighter. That would be the finals of the Olympic halfpipe competition in Vancouver in February. Vito may be twisting and corking himself into millions more living rooms. If things go perfectly, he just may vault himself over Shaun White, becoming a household name himself.
