The New Faces of Snowboarding || Guest Author: Annie G.
- Girls of the World
- May 11, 2018
- 7 min read
Girls of the World works to inspire women and share stories; however, we also love when all of you take initiative and want to do some writing. We will be introducing another new series: Guest Authors. This will give us a chance to not only profile different women's stories but also their writing.
The New Faces of Snowboarding
By Annie G.
What does snowboarding look like to you? Growing up, snowboarding to me was Shaun White’s carrot top flying in the wind as he flew down a pristine, white, snow capped mountain. To me, snowboarding was Travis Rice effortlessly making his way down a velvety hill, snow flying up behind him. As a lover of winter sports, especially skiing and snowboarding, the athletes I saw on television when I was younger were all male. I wanted to fly like Shaun White or Travis Rice: men embodied snowboarding for me. In the last few years. I was thrilled and inspired to discover the likes of Jamie Anderson just four years ago on the slope style course at Sochi in 2014. Since that time, I have focused my attention on the women of snowboarding and their struggle to achieve prominence in the sport.
Snowboarding, relatively new as a competitive sport, made its first appearance in 1994 at the Olympic games and has since been dominated and commercialized by its male stars. At the Burton US Open, snowboarding’s top athletes are showcased in events. I had the opportunity to attend this competition and talk to some of the best female athletes in snowboarding. While learning about the obstacles women face in this sport I also discovered a community of inspiring women, leading the movement for gender equality.
Anna Gasser, who recently won gold at the 2018 Winter X Games and the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, has been able to see the progression of women in this sport over time. When asked if she had faced obstacles due to her gender she responded, “yes, of course, especially in the beginning you have to earn respect of the boys and that’s hard when you’re a young girl.” This is an important note because many times women getting started in any sport get discouraged from continuing, resulting in a relative lack of women at the professional level. Silje Norendal, a two-time gold medalist in the X Games, pointed out that “being a part of the Norwegian national team, I’m the only girl so I’ve been pretty much living with boys for as long as I can remember and I think that is sometimes challenging”. These obstacles permeate the entire sport of snowboarding. “There’s tons of times where you’re the only girl on the mountain,” expressed Maddie Mastro. Mastro won bronze and silver at this year’s Winter X Games and Burton US Open, respectively. Even for the most competitive athletes in the world, being a female athlete can be an incredibly lonely undertaking.
For Jamie Anderson, one of the most decorated athletes in snowboarding with fourteen medals from the X Games and three Olympic medals, one of the obstacles she faced was proving to everyone that she could compete to the same standards as the men. Jamie Anderson spoke about her experience explaining “in the beginning of my snowboarding career there was a lot of controversy with the women not being 'that good' and that was really frustrating.”
Within women’s sports, the rules, courses, and challenges are often watered down. In luge and bobsled, women have a significantly shorter track to compete on. In cross country skiing, the maximum distance for the freestyle is fifteen kilometers for men but only ten kilometers for women. In speed skating, the maximum distance for men is ten kilometers but only five kilometers for women. Of course, there are notable exceptions; in freestyle skiing and snowboarding, the same course is used in both the men’s and women’s events. Snowboarder Kelly Clark, a three-time Olympic medalist, highlighted this very aspect of snowboarding, saying that “[women in snowboarding] don’t compete on a different [playing field] than the men. We don’t play with a smaller ball or hit from the ladies tee.” Sina Candrian, who placed fourth at the 2014 Olympics and won a silver medal at the FIS Snowboarding World Championships in 2013, emphasized, “we have the same events as the guys have and that’s pretty cool.” Tackling these issues now is paving the way for future female winter athletes, instilling a mindset in young girls that they are just as capable physically as men: a mindset that, unfortunately, is rather recent.
Aside from creating equal opportunities for men and women to snowboard, female snowboarders have made a point to publicly support each other even while competing against one another. These women even do more than look out for each other: they look up to each other. Snowboarders who are relatively new to the sport, (even world-renowned ones) like Chloe Kim, Anna Gasser, and Arielle Gold, admire experienced snowboarders like Jamie Anderson and Kelly Clark. Gasser commented, “There’s a lot of other female athletes that I look up to: there was always Jamie… she was already winning contests before I even started, and that was inspiring to watch.” When asked the same question, Jamie Anderson gave a similar, reciprocal response. “Girls like Anna Gasser are just so amazing,” she said. “A lot of the newer girls are really so impressive,” Anderson added. The older women in sports are able to set the bar for the younger women to look up to while the younger athletes inspire the older ones with their new ideas.
Despite their small numbers, these women come together. When asked about the common experiences shared by professional female athletes, Anna Gasser explained “We have such a good community and everyone kinda looks out for each other. It’s really unique.” Maddie Mastro added “I get to [snowboard] with a great group of girls where it’s just super inspiring and they all have great character and morals, it’s just amazing and inspiring to be a part of that.” That sense of community will ensure that these inspiring women will share a bond among themselves and all other female athletes who follow in their footsteps in the foreseeable future. “For us it’s just about trying to lead a movement and prove that were capable of doing everything the men can,” Arielle Gold admitted. Gold recently took home the bronze medal at the Olympic Games in PyeongChang.
It’s not only the athletes who support each other: the companies sponsoring them do as well. Burton Snowboards, one of the most prominent snowboard manufacturing companies in the world – especially among female snowboarders – is no exception. Burton’s Global PR Director, Abby Young, attributes this status to CEO Donna Carpenter, saying that “she really changed the game for a lot of women internally at Burton and also externally in the industry,” Over the course of Burton’s founding by Donna Carpenter’s husband, she has worked tirelessly to put more women in leadership positions, making it a goal to help female snowboarders realize their talents in a historically exclusively male sport. She even paid for Burton employees to attend the Women’s March in Washington, D.C. last year, putting a company-wide focus on women’s rights.
These women also had some advice for girls interested in snowboarding although their words are applicable to any young women with big dreams in sports. Jamie Anderson advised girls to “just have fun with it. Don’t put too much pressure on yourself, enjoy it and whatever you really love you're gonna be at it.” “Just go out and try,” Mastro said, “There’s always that fear of judgment, but that is just a fear.” Arielle Gold wants to tell girls to not be disheartened by other people’s opinions and “don’t let anybody tell you what you can and can’t do.”
When I think about snowboarding now, I still picture Shaun White soaring down a hill. I still look up to Travis Rice and Red Gerard. But alongside them, I see Klaudia Medlova performing the first female double backside rodeo. I picture Jamie Anderson’s smile as she flawlessly lands a slopestyle run, or Kelly Clark pushing her goggles onto her forehead after becoming the first woman to land a 1080 in the halfpipe. I see Chloe Kim executing a perfect back to back 1080, her hair flying in the wind, and Anna Gasser finishing a cab double cork 900 kicker, fist raised in the air. Slowly but surely, female snowboarders are becoming the faces of snowboarding alongside their male counterparts. These women are changing the face of the sport, advocating for women to also act as embodiments of snowboarding. We are no longer living in an era where men are the sole faces of snowboarding – women are beginning to compete with tricks that have the same level of difficulty as the male riders. This community of inspiring women is leading the movement for gender equality which is making waves not only in snowboarding but in all of sports. As Jamie Anderson told me, “girls can do anything.”
Thank you to all of the amazing women I got the opportunity to talk to – Silje Norendal, Arielle Gold, Sina Candrian, Isabel Derungs, Anna Gasser, Klaudia Medlova, Christy Prior, Kelly Clark, Abby Young, Jamie Anderson, Barrett Christy, Maddie Mastro, and Dasher Nosova. In addition, a big shout out to Ilana M. and Cassidy G. for helping me write this article and Jia S. for being an awesome editor. Special thanks to Mark Bricklin, Abby Young, and Henry Jackson for helping me navigate the US Open and giving me an opportunity I only could dream of. Also, I would like to thank my parents and sister for all of their support.
About our guest author:
Annie Gleiberman is currently a senior in high school. She plans to attend the College of Engineering at Cornell University this upcoming fall. In her free time, Annie works with the UN Foundation Girl Up, a campaign to unite girls to change the world. Annie serves as the President of the Girl Up Pennsylvania Coalition, a network of clubs in the state of Pennsylvania. You can follow Annie on Instagram @annievail12 or contact her by email at annievail9@gmail.com.

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