Three Quick Tips for Riding the Halfpipe on Your Snowboard
Want to learn more about snowboarding on the Olympic halfpipe? Stop what you’re doing and look at 17-year-old American Chloe Kim who is crushing it throughout the globe.
How Many Runs in Halfpipe Final
If you haven’t been keeping up with the Winter Olympics, you owe it to yourself to watch Shaun White win gold in the halfpipe snowboarding sport for Team USA tonight. Don’t know what a halfpipe is in snowboarding? You can see the rules and other information you’ll need to watch tonight below.
Despite being a new addition to the Winter Olympic programme, snowboarding has quickly become a fan favourite. Since 1998, the Winter Olympics have included halfpipe snowboarding. Skaters and surfers adopted snowboarding as a winter board sport in its infancy in the 1960s.
Snowboarding’s gradual rise to prominence throughout the ’70s and ’80s ultimately led to widespread acceptance of the sport by the ’90s. It wasn’t until the 1998 Nagano Olympics that snowboarding was officially recognised as an Olympic activity, despite the fact that snowboarders had begun organising events as early as the 1980s, according to trails.com.
1: A Definition of Halfpipe Snowboarding
According to NBC Olympics, participants ride through a U-shaped course with 22-foot walls, surprising the spectators with a variety of sophisticated tricks as they zoom through the halfpipe (also dubbed a superpipe).
With seemingly no effort at all, riders do complicated tricks on both sides of the pipe. The halfpipe competition requires 30 men and 24 women to make it through a challenging qualification round in order to compete. Each contestant gets two attempts at a run, with the best score counting. In the end, the best 12 athletes will move on to the championship round.
What exactly happens in the last round? The Olympic final in 2018 will use a three-run format (past Olympic games consisted of just two runs).
While previous Olympic competitions have only had two runs, this year’s final will have three. Once again, just the highest score from each contender will be used to determine the winners.
According to NBC Olympics, “the start order for all three runs will be the inverse of the results from the qualification round (the athlete with the lowest score in qualifying goes first and the athlete with the best score goes last).
2: The Criteria Used to Award Points in Snowboarding’s Halfpipe
Judging each halfpipe run is a panel of six judges. Those with the highest and lowest scores are eliminated. Finally, the remaining four scores are averaged for each iteration.
Judging is subjective, with judges assigning points anywhere from 1 to 100 based on their overall opinion.
What factors do the judges weigh in on?
1: Height (or amplitude) A strong initial burst of energy is essential, but so is keeping it up all day. Riders are pushed to not only get huge air when they launch off the halfpipe, but to keep that altitude and momentum going for the whole length of their run.
2: Challenge. The judges’ knowledge is essential because it is impossible for the average viewer to assess the technical difficulty of the riders’ manoeuvres.
Adding an alley-oop spin (an uphill technique) to a rider’s routine can increase its difficulty, delicacy, and overall showmanship. Shaun White has always been a standout in this regard.
3: tie for most interesting. Those on the saddle are strongly advised to avoid the temptation to perform a “regular” run.
Given the sport’s emphasis on individual expression, snowboarders are free to tailor their runs to the specific tastes of the audience, increasing the likelihood that they will be able to pull off a particularly impressive trick or two. Once again, this is an area in which Shaun White has been recognised for his prowess.
4: carry it out. In what ways do you find the trip relaxing? Does the rider look secure, in charge, and able to move with ease? Do they land securely, or does the rider seem unsteady?
Gold medalists in the past have made their landings look effortless and perfect (though, of course, nothing could be further from the truth). When it comes time to award points, the trained panel of judges is called upon to evaluate each snowboarder’s performance based on a number of criteria.
3: The Snowboarders Who Laugh in the Face of Death
Tonight, Team USA’s 17-year-old Chloe Kim is one to watch. Kim, now 17 years old, was just 13 when the Sochi Olympics were held. Experts believe that if she had been allowed to compete, she would have won a medal if given the chance.
The latest: Chloe Kim did not let anyone down. With her halfpipe talents, she shocked, dominated, and astonished the competition, earning herself a gold medal.
I’m pleased I wasn’t able to go, Kim said to NBC Olympics last year. To put it bluntly, I don’t think I could have handled the stress. If I’m being honest, I don’t think I was emotionally prepared. Between the ages of 13 and 17, there is a large gap.
As in, when I was 13 years old, what did I do? I get my nails done regularly and enter a few competitions a year. To me, it seems like a lot of things have shifted. And I was a rookie when it came to dealing with intense pressure from the press, sponsors, and the like.
Now, though, I feel like I have some understanding because I have experienced it all to some extent. In light of this, I feel like I’ll be a little more prepared,” Kim stated in an interview with NBC Olympics.
Chloe’s cab 1080 is a must-see, so make sure you don’t miss it! The NBC news report states that during a competition run, she did a frontside 1080 on one halfpipe wall and a cab 1080 on the other. She is the only woman who has ever completed that juggling trick.
Shaun White, a 31-year-old veteran Olympian, is set to make his return to the games tonight after recovering from an accident in which he required more than 60 stitches to close a large gash to his face and nose. Despite this, White shows no signs of being discouraged.
Yet, in October while training in New Zealand, he crashed into the lip of the halfpipe, requiring 62 stitches to his head and face, putting a literal bloody nose on his Olympic preparations.
When snowboarders attempt aerial techniques like the double cork 1440 or the switch double-cork 1260, which send them soaring over the 22-foot walls of the pipe, crashes are unfortunately par for the course in the sport of halfpipe snowboarding. White is a seasoned player who “understood he had to get back in the saddle,” as CNN puts it.
Kelly Clark, also of Team USA, is a fantastic athlete who will be participating tonight. Clark, a gold medalist, consistently amazes and dissatisfies her audience.
