Q: Should snowboarding half-pipe be considered an Olympic sport?
Sean Stevenson: After the U.S. men's and women's teams took home gold and silver medals in the snowboarding half-pipe, people are beginning to wonder if this "American" sport should be in the Olympics. Is this an Olympic sport?
Phil Friend: I guess so. I worry a little bit about the X Gamesification of the Winter games, but then again archery is a sport in the summer Olympics. I'm not sure we're ready for Mat Hoffman and his bike to be part of the Olympics just yet, though.
SS: Is it just another easy gold for old U.S.A.?
PF: It's definitely an easy gold, which is why I think the USOC pushed for the halfpipe to be in the Olympics in the first place.
SS: I agree that it should be an Olympic sport but I can't agree with the word "gamesification." Webster does not acknowledge that as real and neither can I. But back to the halfpipe. This is a sport that is American-dominated but it's a sport where other countries will catch up in eventually.
PF: Everybody does catch up eventually, you're right. Just look at our own Olympic men's basketball team, and Team Canada in hockey. They went 50 years without winning a gold medal in "their" sport.
SS: I think that Hannah Teter and Shaun White are great for their sport and the Olympics. Both skipped out of the X Games in order to prepare themselves for the Olympics. When people look back on when the half-pipe truly became an Olympic sport, I think they will look at Teter and White as the people who made it happen.
PF: What about Ross Powers, who won the gold at the last one? He didn't make it happen? And Kelly Clark? She got fourth this year and won the gold in 2002.
SS: They didn't make it the Olympic sport that it will become after Turin. For the past four years it's still been a sport associated with the X Games first. White, the "Flying Tomato" is being plastered on fronts of magazines and television sets everywhere. There's always that one person in each sport who takes what someone else started and brings it to another level. That person is Shaun White for snowboarding.
PF: I'll buy that. I guess we can call him the Wayne Gretzky of snowboarding. We might as well go ahead and put him on a Wheaties box.
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