Women L - R: Amy Purdy (Las Vegas, Nev.), Cristina Albert (Denver, Colo.), Heidi Jo Duce (Ouray, Colo.), Megan Harmon (Huntsville, Ala.), Nicole Roundy (Bountiful, Utah)
 
Men L -R: Tyler Burdick (Salt Lake City, Utah), Keith Gabel (Ogden, Utah), Mike Shea (Castaic, Calif.), Evan Strong (Nevada City, Calif.), Dan Monzo (Vernon, N.J.).  Rear Jason Smith - wax tech.

Photo taken in Munich, Germany March 3, 2014.

I just arrived in beautiful Breckenridge for The Hartford Ski Spectacular. I am with the whole US snowboard team to share our shred experience with the entire adaptive snowboarding community. @thehartford #skispec Amy PurdyGrizzly Gabel Mike Shea Heidi Jo Duce Nicole Roundy Tyler Burdick Miåh Wheeler Travis Mclain Marc Dervaes Lucas Grossi, The Hartford

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. ― The United States Olympic Committee today announced that U.S. Paralympics Snowboard National Champions Evan Strong (Nevada City, Calif.) and Heidi Jo Duce (Ouray, Colo.) and nine other athletes are nominated for the 2013-14 U.S. Paralympics Snowboard National Team, which is the first-ever national team in the sport.

In May 2012, the International Paralympic Committee announced that snowboard cross will be included in the alpine skiing program at the Sochi 2014 Paralympic Winter Games, March 7-16, in Russia. The Paralympic competition is open to men and women with lower limb impairments.

“As we look toward the start of the Paralympic Winter Games in 10 months, the nomination of these athletes to the inaugural U.S. Paralympics Snowboard National Team marks a significant step for the program and the sport,” said Kevin Jardine, USOC high performance director for Paralympic alpine skiing and snowboarding. “A year ago, there was very little opportunity for Paralympic snowboarders, and now there is chance for a Paralympic gold medal. Our national team athletes are among the world’s best and are up to the challenge of medaling in Sochi.”  

Joining Strong and Duce are nominees Christina Albert (Denver, Colo.), Tyler Burdick (Salt Lake City, Utah), Keith Gabel (Ogden, Utah), Lucas Grossi (Billings, Mont.), Amy Purdy (Las Vegas, Nev.), Nicole Roundy (Bountiful, Utah) and Mike Shea (Castaic, Calif.), all who have lower limb impairments, and Joseph Chandler (Salt Lake City, Utah) and Marc Dervaes (West Chester, Pa.), who have upper limb impairments.

“There are no words to describe what it feels like to be nominated for the first-ever U.S. Paralympics Snowboard National Team,” said Duce, who won two bronze medals on the 2012-13 International Paralympic Committee Alpine Skiing Snowboard World Cup circuit before taking the inaugural national crown. “I am stoked to be a part of history with so many great athletes. While we will always be known as trailblazers, I hope that we are remembered not just for being a part of the national team but for inspiring other amputees to get involved in snowboarding.”

National team nominations will be confirmed by July 1.

Nominees to the U.S. Paralympics Snowboard National Team will participate in a training camp next week at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colo.

U.S. Paralympics Snowboard National A Team

• Marc Dervaes, SB-UL, West Chester, Pa.
• Heidi Jo Duce, SB-LL, Ouray, Colo.
• Keith Gable, SB-LL, Ogden, Utah
• Amy Purdy, SB-LL, Las Vegas, Nev.
• Mike Shea, SB-LL, Castaic, Calif.
• Evan Strong, SB-LL, Nevada City, Calif.

U.S. Paralympics Snowboard National B Team

• Christina Albert, SB-LL, Denver, Colo.
• Tyler Burdick, SB-LL, Salt Lake City, Utah
• Joseph Chandler, SB-UL, Salt Lake City, Utah
• Lucas Grossi, SB-LL, Billings, Mont.
• Nicole Roundy, SB-LL, Bountiful, Ut

Heidi Jo Duce, Evan Strong and Joseph Chandler topped the podium in their respective events at the US Snowboard Cross National Championships on Thursday (4 April) in Copper Mountain, Colorado.

Nineteen men and seven women competed in the event, with less than one year to go until the Sochi 2014 Paralympic Winter Games, where the discipline will debut for athletes lower limb impairments.

Despite there being five athletes from outside of the country, USA monopolised the podium.

In the women’s lower limb impairment race, Heidi Jo Duce had the winning overall time (1:50.32), despite Amy Purdy having the fastest times on the first and third runs. Purdy was just three-hundredths of a second behind, finishing in 1:50.35. Nicole Roundy came third in 2:11.72.

After a cautious first run, Evan Strong had the fastest times in the second and third runs to take gold in the men’s lower limb impairment class in 1:23.25. Tyler Burdick came second finishing in 1:35.11 and Keith Gabel had the third-fastest time of 1:35.16.

In the men’s upper-limb impairment class, which will not be on the Paralympic programme in Sochi, Joseph Chandler had the fastest time of 1:40.60. Fatu Matagi was second in 1:52.18 and Samoana Matagi third in 2:15.67.

The event is the final competition on IPCAS snowboard cross calendar for this season.

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The men’s lower limb impairment class saw the closest competition of the week.

Thursday’s race was won by New Zealand’s Carl Murphy. Despite a disastrous first run which saw him finish tenth, the Kiwi was fastest in the second and third runs to take gold in 2:47.89. Silver went to USA’s Evan Strong (2:51.00) and bronze Strong’s teammate Keith Gabel (2:51.95).

On Friday, Strong got his revenge and was fastest in each of his three runs to take gold in 2:43.31. Murphy had to settle for silver (2:45.16) whilst Gabel (2:46.12) picked up his second bronze in two days.

Snowboard will make its Paralympic debut at the Sochi 2014 Paralympic Winter Games.

Para-snowboard has been on the tip of everyone’s tongues this week, as the IPCAS Snowboard Cross Test Event was held on Wednesday (6 March) for the sport that will make its Paralympic Games debut in exactly one year.

Fans are excited to see a new, extreme-type sport make its way up to the Paralympic level, and athletes such as USA’s Evan Strong and Amy Purdy, along with New Zealand’s Carl Murphy and the Netherlands’ Biban Mentel are slowly becoming household names.

And, most importantly, after years of petitioning, snowboarders are finally ready to show the world why the deserve to be on the international stage in Paralympic sport.

“It was a movement from a lot of people in a lot of nations, and we’re very proud to have advanced the sport to the Paralympic platform,” Strong said.

“Snowboarding is something new, something fresh that will definitely excited fans at the Paralympic level.

“It’s been great to compete in international competitions. I can’t even begin to imagine what it’s going to be like at Sochi 2014.”

Men’s competition

Following Strong’s first-place finish at the test event, he will easily go into Sochi 2014 as the one to beat on the men’s side.

“It felt really good to be here in the biggest most high-profile race for adaptive snowboarding so far,” Strong said after the test event. “So it felt really good to go home with a victory. It's a really good way to go into Sochi for next year.”

Strong has been around action sports his entire life, growing up on the Hawaiian island of Maui, where he was formerly a kid skateboarding wiz.

He said most of his training dips into other sports, as when he’s not on the snow he is skateboarding or mountain biking.

At Sochi 2014, the 25-year-old will have plenty of competition from several athletes he knows well who competed with him in adaptive snowboard cross and X-Games events for the last six seasons.

Murphy, along with Canada’s Tyler Mosher and USA’s Mike Shea, will be Strong’s toughest opponents in his quest to claim gold in the men’s lower-limb category, the only classification being offered in snowboard’s Paralympic Games debut.

All of them believe snowboarding has the chance to skyrocket in Paralympic popularity, as the sport did when it debuted at the Olympics.

“I think the same thing will happen with para-snowboard that happened on the Olympic side with snowboard,” Strong said. Read More:

Keith "Grizzly" Gabel, Mike Shea, Evan Strong, Amy Purdy with coach Jason Toth at Rosa Khutor Alpine Resort, Russia preparing for the Paralympic test event races March 6, 2013. Go Team USA

Twenty-five snowboarders from 11 countries are set to take part in the Snowboard Cross Paralympic Test Event in Sochi, Russia on Wednesday (6 March).

Athletes from Australia, Belgium, Canada, Great Britain, Italy, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Russia, Slovakia, Ukraine and USA are eager to test the sport which will make its Paralympic debut at the 2014 Games.

The event will take place just one year and one day before the Paralympic Winter Games open at the Extreme Park in Rosa Khotor – not far from the Paralympic venue.

USA's world champion Evan Strong will likely find his toughest opponent in New Zealand's Carl Murphy. Read More:

Strong dominates snowboard cross event by www.paralympic.org/news

USA’s Evan Strong and Marc Deraves won their men’s snowboard cross events and the Netherlands’ Bibian Mentel was victorious on the women’s side at the IPC Alpine Skiing event in South Tahoe (Nevada), USA on Sunday (27 January).

Strong, a 2011 X-Games gold medallist, dominated the men’s lower-limb impairment category with a result of 1:39.50, just ahead of Canada’s Ian Lockey who finished in 1:41.02 and his American teammate Keith Gabel, who finished in 1:41.74.

Evan says: "After 9 months of anticipation and preparation for the first US national qualifying World Cup I brought home the GOLD from Sierra at Tahoe! It feels good to start off the season on the "right" foot ;). Now off to the airport to head to CO. For the next World Cup this weekend, stay tuned!"

Full results from the men’s snowboard cross competition can be found here.



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By Alex Houston:

So honored to have recorded Paralympic history in the making today at Sierra at Tahoe
with the largest international adaptive snowboarding competition ever!

Congrats to all the para-snowboarders, especially the lower limb podiums:

Women: Bibian Mentel (gold), Amy Purdy (silver) and newcomer Heidi Jo Duce (bronze)

Men: Evan Strong (gold), Ian Lockey (silver) and Grizzly (Keith) Gabel (bronze)
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By Kathryn Reed  of Lake Tahoe News.

Fifty-four riders from eight countries will be competing this weekend at Sierra-at-Tahoe in the first qualifier for the 2014 U.S. Paralympic snowboarding team.

With the folks associated with next year’s Olympics in Sochi, Russia, deciding less than a year ago to include snowboarding in the Paralympics, riders are scrambling a bit.

“I have personally met several of the athletes. They are inspiring as they have overcome their disabilities, and not only get on the mountain — but can beat about half of us through a race course,” Sierra General Manager John Rice told Lake Tahoe News.

More than 20 officials from the International Paralympic Committee and U.S. Paralympic Committee will be in town this weekend. Read More