Gus Kenworthy, Michelle Kwan and other Winter Olympians sat down with USA TODAY Sports to discuss what they're most looking forward to about the upcoming games in South Korea. USA TODAY Sports
For Red Gerard, the fun isn’t in the contests. It’s in the training for them, when he and his snowboarder friends are on the slopestyle course just riding. Or figuring out how to play hip hop through the speakers in the riders’ tent.
That youthful energy is part and parcel of a sport that is constantly re-invigorated by new blood. As the Americans look toward the Pyeongchang Olympics, it's young athletes like Gerard who could strengthen the U.S team.
To be sure, veteran riders and Olympic gold medalists like Shaun White, Kelly Clark and Jamie Anderson are vying to secure spots and favored to return and medal.
But Gerard, Hailey Langland, Maddie Mastro and Chloe Kim are all likely to make the U.S. team before they get out of their teens. Julia Marino, meanwhile, only recently turned 20 and is a medal contender in Pyeongchang.
Gerard, 17, heads into the Dew Tour this week with a chance to secure his spot after winning the first qualifying event in February. Gerard debuted with a fifth-place finish at the Dew Tour just two years ago, and now Mountain Dew is a sponsor for the stylish rider.
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“The practices are what I live for. They’re so much fun, I think, just because there’s not too much pressure,” said Gerard, who competes in slopestyle and big air. “You’re really pushing your friends to do the best run and put together the best run, and you’re also just having a good time. Once the contest starts that’s when it isn’t that much fun, but I’m psyched for this year.”
That youthful approach is a competitive advantage, said veteran halfpipe rider and fellow Mountain Dew athlete Danny Davis. At 29, Davis is trying to make his second Olympic team.
“Man, he’s just way ahead of the kids that are his age. You might look at Red and think, wow, this kid’s so young, but he’s at that level where he’s up with the big boys,” said veteran rider Danny Davis. “He’s got a very good grasp on not taking it too seriously, having fun out there with his buddies."
Thanks to that approach, Gerard has been able to avoid thinking about the Olympics.
Athletes need at least one top-three finish to qualify. But in a deep U.S. field where more athletes have already achieved that than there are guaranteed spots, riders qualify based on their top two finishes.
Though Gerard finished 12th last week in the first of four qualifying events this season, he can grab a spot with another podium finish in the next three qualifying contests.
“It was a good time to win a contest,” he said. “It takes a lot of stress off, in a way.”
Here’s a look at some of the other riders trying to lock up their spots this week:
Julia Marino
The Connecticut native was an alternate for Big Air Fenway in 2016, but came in and won to start a breakthrough season last year that saw her land on eight podiums.
That included two gold medals in her X Games debut in January, with a gold in slopestyle and bronze in big air. She grabbed a third place in slopestyle in the Mammoth Grand Prix in February, the first qualifier for the team, and was second overall and the top American in big air at the U.S. Grand Prix at Copper Mountain last week.
“The Olympics is a huge event, obviously, but the camaraderie in snowboarding is what keeps everyone grounded,” Marino said. “I think the fact that we’re all riding together, we’re all seeing each other at the same contests, makes it seems like a less of a really out-of-the ordinary kind of event.”
Hailey Langland
Favored to join Anderson and Marino on the U.S. team is the 17-year-old who made X Games history in January.
In the big air debut in Aspen, Langland topped the podium after landing a cab double cork 1080 — a trick with three rotations – after deciding an hour before the contest to try it.
“All I wanted to do was land it for myself and getting a gold medal was icing on the cake,” she said.
Langland was second in slopestyle in the qualifier in February, giving her a leg up in qualifying this winter.
“Having the younger girls come up with so much charisma and energy is actually really rad,” said Anderson, the Sochi gold medalist and queen of the event with 11 X Games slopestyle medals. “I have so much fun riding with Hailey and Julia and they’re both so talented that it’s really fun to watch them develop their career and get their snowboarding dialed because they’re going to do crazy stuff in the future and I’m stoked I get to ride and compete with them.”
Maddie Mastro
Mastro had two Grand Prix podiums coming into this season until finishing second at Copper Mountain last week.
That finish put her solidly in the mix for the halfpipe team, one which will enter Pyeongchang with lofty expectations.
Led by Kelly Clark, the Americans have dominated the sport for two decades. Clark, the winningest snowboarder in history, herself has three Olympic medals. And Americans have won eight of the 15 medals since the event was added in 1998.
“It’s really amazing to have other U.S. team girls really just pushing and almost dominating it,” said Mastro. “We ride together. We train together.”
Chloe Kim
It’s almost difficult to put Kim among the youth movement in the sport considering she’s been leading it this quad.
She won X Games gold for two consecutive years before taking bronze in January. Kim became the first woman to land back-to-back 1080s in a competition when she did it to win a U.S. Grand Prix in 2016.
Though the California native is 17, she is favored not just to make it to Pyeongchang but to win gold there.
She took a big step forward with a win in the U.S. Grand Prix last week, and the qualifying process isn’t anything new for her.
Kim met the criteria to qualify for Sochi but couldn’t compete because, at 13, she was too young to go.
“I feel like that would have been too much for me at 13,” she said. “Honestly, it’s too much for me right now, so I don’t know if I could have done it four years ago. I’m thanking god for that.”
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