As we pointed out earlier, there’s nothing quite like Halfpipe for sheer spectacle. As the riders are preparing to drop into the pipe in Beijing, we take a trip down memory lane to revisit all our favourite moments from Olympic Halfpipe over the years.
Nagano, 1998
Snowboarding rocketed out of its subculture and onto the world stage at the 1998 Nagano Games, but the most iconic part about Nagano wasn’t who was competing, but who wasn’t competing. Terje Haakonsen, who was the halfpipe gold medal favourite, gave a big middle finger to FIS and the IOC by boycotting the Olympic Games.
Salt Lake City, 2002: Heikki Sorsa
Sure, Team USA were a dominating force at Salt Lake in 2002, with a clean sweep of the men’s podium and Kelly Clark taking the women’s gold, but let’s be real, all eyes were on Heikki Sorsa with his sick mohawk, punk rock attitude and this killer run.