Athlete Bios
Snowboarding
Wescott faces Olympic challenge in teammate Nate Holland
Last Updated: Wednesday, February 10, 2010 | 10:17 AM ET
New York Times for CBC Sports
Seth Wescott came 6th at a snowboard cross World Cup event in Telluride, Colorado on Dec. 19, 2009. (Doug Pensinger/Getty Images)Seth Wescott won the inaugural Olympic men's snowboardcross four years ago in Turin. Now 33, he returns as a contender again, being chased by some serious competition - namely his good friend and fellow American Nate Holland, who may be the favourite.
At last season's X Games, Wescott finished third. It was his eighth X Games medal since 1998. But Holland has won the event five times, including the last four.
Still, Wescott remains better known outside the insular world of snowboarding for his performance in 2006. Lest fans think that Wescott's best performances are behind him, he had a career-high three World Cup podium finishes last season, including one victory.
Born in North Carolina and raised in Maine, Wescott helped bring snowboardcross into the mainstream. The sport was added to the Olympic program for a few reasons. It is fan-friendly, with four competitors racing down a steep, curvy course. It lends itself to spectacular wipeouts and the occasional collision. And unlike the more prestigious halfpipe competition, it involves no judges, limiting the type of controversy that frightens the International Olympic Committee.
Still, snowboardcross is some of the tamest riding that Wescott will do. Sometimes bored with the tour and its staged events, he spends much of his time dropping from helicopters and riding down virgin snow on remote mountainsides, usually in Alaska. In 2003, he survived an avalanche.
When Wescott is not riding, he is sometimes found at the Rack, a barbecue restaurant at the base of Maine's Sugarloaf Mountain that he co-owns with friends.
Many of the best riders are American, including Wescott, Holland (who fell and finished 14th in Turin) and Graham Watanabe. But until one of the others wins an Olympic gold medal, Wescott will get most of the attention leading up to Vancouver.
Even with a victory, others will struggle to top the emotion of Wescott's 2006 performance. Before the Games, Wescott and his father, Jim, talked about bringing the service flag from the funeral of Wescott's grandfather, a World War II veteran. When Wescott won, his father was stuck, with the flag, in the bleachers far from the finish line. But he pushed his way through the crowd and past security to give Wescott the flag, which he wrapped himself in as he celebrated.
