Making the US Olympic Team

With less than 100 days to the Opening Ceremony, the Winter Olympics are fast approaching and the top snowboarders are getting ready to battle for a spot on the Olympic team. The US Olympic team, which has dominated the past two Olympics, has just released their team selection criteria and we're going to break it down for you.

First of all the number of spots on the team is determined by the outcome in FIS events from January 2009 to January 2010. Right now they have a minimum quota based on the results of the past two years. If the US team does well they can earn up to 4 spots in each event, but the max number of athletes on the team is 18 and there can only at most 10 of one gender.

In order to qualify for the team a rider must have placed in the top 30 of an FIS event between July 2008 and January 2010 and have at least 100 FIS points at the time of nomination. This is why you'll see athletes like Shaun White participating in FIS events, which they would often skip. All athletes must also be U.S. citizens, members in good standing of the USSA and holding a valid FIS license at the time of nomination.

For the US Halfpipe team the 5 events in the US Grand Prix series will be used as qualifying events. Up to three men and three women will be selected based on individual results at these events:

Dec. 12, 2009 – Copper Mountain, CO (1 event)
Jan. 6, 9, 2010 – Mammoth Mountain, CA (2 events)
Jan. 22-23, 2010 – Park City, UT (2 events)

The first selection criteria will be to select athletes who had a top-four finish in one of the selection events (Grand Prix). So doing well in these 5 event is key. If there are still spots open, one athlete per gender will be selected who has the highest average of the top two results in the selection events (Grand Prix). If there are still spots remaining they will be decided at the discretion of the head snowboarding coach.

The snowboardcross team will be selected from individual results in 5 selection events that are part of the 2009-10 FIS Snowboard World Cup. There will be up to 2 men and 2 women selected, although extra athletes may be named based on medal potential if more quota spots are available.

The qualifying events will be:
Sept. 12, 2009 – Chapelco, Argentina
Dec. 19, 2009 – Telluride, Colorado
Jan. 10, 2010 – Bad Gastein, Austria
Jan. 15, 2010 – Nandaz, Switzerland
Jan. 21, 2010 – Stoneham, Quebec

The snowboardcross team will be selected in a similar manner as the halfpipe team. Up to two athletes per gender will be selected who have a top 4 finish in selection events. If no athletes are selected in the first criteria, one athlete per gender will be selected by averaging the top 2 scores in selection events. Lastly athletes will be selected at the discretion of the head snowboard coach.

The USSA will present their selections to the US Olympic Committee who will announce the teams.

You can get more information on the selection criteria at:
http://www.ussa.org/magnoliaPublic/ussa/en/special/olympic-criteria.html