A pair of Olympic medalists, Seth Wescott and Lindsey Jacobellis, swept the Visa Snowboardcross in Tamarack, Idaho, last Sunday, marking the first major win of the season for Wescott since recovering from a broken arm last season.
Wescott, a native of Sugarloaf, Maine, dominated the men's SBX competition, and Jacobellis, from Stratton Mountain, Vt., has won two of three SBX competitions on the Jeep King of the Mountain tour.
Wescott and Jacobellis won gold and silver medals, respectively, at the 2006 Olympic Games in Turin, Italy.
"It feels good; it's been about a year after shattering my arm," Wescott told US Snowboarding news after the competition. "I came into the season really out of shape and just not feeling it. The arm set me back six months of physical training in the summer . . . it's good to compete against these guys and win. It feels good to get my confidence going again."
Wescott beat out Shaun Palmer from Lake Tahoe, Nev., and Graham Watanabe from Sun Valley, Idaho. Jacobellis finished ahead of Canadian rider Michelle Brodeur and Kim Krahulec from Silverthorne, Idaho.
"It felt great," said Jacobellis. "I was really riding well, so I was happy with the way I put the course together. I felt like I had great starts all day, and I'm really pleased the way it came together for me."
In the halfpipe competition, Kelly Clark, a Newport, R.I., native who won gold in the event in the 2002 Games, emerged victorious after a second-place finish in December's Grand Prix.
US Snowboarding's Clair Bidez took second and Ellery Hollingsworth third. Hollingsworth is a junior at the Stratton Mountain School.
The snowboard Grand Prix series will wrap up March 15-16 at Killington, Vt., with a halfpipe and slopestyle finale. On March 1-3, the SBX riders will ride at Lake Placid, N.Y., after returning from World Cup events in Korea and Japan.
Olympic volunteers
If you don't think you'll make the qualifying cut to participate as an athlete at the 2010 Winter Games, another way to get to the Vancouver Olympics is to volunteer.Some 25,000 volunteers are sought for both the Winter Games in February and the Paralympic Games one month later. Although the bulk of the volunteers are expected to be local because of an expected lodging crunch in the Vancouver area, the Olympic staffing committee is accepting international applications from visitors who can secure their own place to stay.
The Olympics has put out a call for a wide range of professional and personal skills to help the Games flow seamlessly behind the scenes, and available positions include medical staffing, media relations, finance and planning, hospitality services, ceremonies setup, massage therapists, and antidoping escorts to walk with athletes to and from the testing area. An extensive list of volunteer positions is posted at vancouver2010.com.
Candidates who pass the online application process will get a follow-up phone interview. Applicants who are selected must pass a criminal background check.
Nashoba's jumping
Nashoba Valley in Westford will be jumping tomorrow and Saturday with a couple of gravity-defying events. Big air under the lights is planned on the Wardance Jump tomorrow night with practice beginning at 6:30 p.m. Slopestyle is the discipline Saturday for skiers and snowboarders taking part in the finals of Zimmermann's Freeride series.The popular Mountain Dew Vertical Challenge touches down at Cannon Mountain Saturday. Sugarloaf is hosting the first Maine Ski Heritage Classic Saturday, a Ski Museum of Maine benefit, featuring vintage ski equipment and clothing. Skiers under 15 can show their stuff on the bumps during Mad River Glen's Junior Mogul Challenge Saturday.
Don't feed the wildlife
An aggressive coyote that nipped at skiers was shot and killed by wildlife officials at Copper Mountain ski area in Colorado last Saturday.As is often the case when wildlife has an unfortunate encounter with mankind, people are believed to have exacerbated the situation by feeding the lone female coyote.
"Because of some of the animal's behavioral issues, we believe she was probably fed by people," Randy Hampton, a spokesman for the Colorado Division of Wildlife, told the Denver Post. "People on a ski lift could have been dropping her food. [A coyote] begins to associate people with food. People think they are helping. But coyotes can find food on their own."
Steals and deals
Here's a novel idea some New England resort should steal as a springboard into what can be the best six or eight weeks of the season: Hunter Mountain in the Catskills region of New York is offering an unlimited pass from March 1 until the mountain closes for $149 . . . Another price break that is worthwhile but never seems to truly catch on is half-day pricing for morning skiers. The best current example is the weekday 9 a.m.-12:30 p.m. ticket at Gunstock in New Hampshire, where you can get in a dozen runs before lunch and still beat rush-hour traffic back into Greater Boston . . . Jay Peak, known for its vast gladed terrain, is aiming to educate wannabe tree-skiers with two-hour glade clinics that focus on technique and safety. The $39 per-person clinic (minimum of three skiers) includes off-piste instruction starting in the easiest of Jay's 24 gladed areas, followed by video analysis, lunch, and off-slope discussion.Globe correspondents Marty Basch and T.D. Thornton contributed to this report.
