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| Born | November 14, 1968 South Lake Tahoe, California, U.S. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Occupation | Snowboarding, Skiing, Mountain Biking, Motocross | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Shaun Palmer (born November 14, 1968) is an American professional snowboarder, skier, mountain biker, and motocross rider. Nicknamed "Napalm" and "Palm Daddy", he is known as one of the forefathers of extreme sports. [1] [2]
Palmer was born in South Lake Tahoe on November 14, 1968.
From a young age, he maintained a strong interest in all things fast. His mother told People Magazine in 1999, "Whether it was on wheels or on a board, it had to be superfast—he had no fear. I remember once when he was 13, I had grounded him. Well, he jumped out of his second-floor bedroom window, got on his bike and took off. He was like that—always pushing the limits." [3]
While Palmer showed potential in both skiing and baseball, Shaun grew enamored with the still-infant sport of snowboarding. At the age of 12, he built his own snowboard.
Palmer taught himself to snowboard, as he was never formally schooled in the sport. In an interview with People Magazine , Palmer stated: "I didn't watch tapes or study other guys—I just figured out what felt right." Just three years after building his own board, Palmer dropped out of high school to become a professional snowboarder. [3]
Throughout his snowboarding career, Palmer received various accolades, including USA Today's World's Greatest Athlete, Details Magazine's Athlete of the Year in 1998, and the NEA Extreme Athlete of the Year in 2000. [4] Also in 2000, Palmer was named as the inaugural Laureus World Alternative Sportsperson of the Year. [5] In February 2001, Palmer was awarded the ESPY Awards' Action Sports Athlete of the Year. [6]
In 2006, Palmer earned himself a spot on the 2006 U.S. Olympic Snowboarding Team. Palmer was a long shot, qualifying for the team after an 11th-hour World Cup podium finish in Bad Gastein, Austria, just one month before the 2006 Winter Olympics. [7] He tore his Achilles tendon just two weeks later, rendering him unable to represent the United States. [8]
In 2010, Palmer was left off the 2010 U.S. Olympic Snowboarding Team. Palmer had sought to fill the last spot on the 18-member squad, but was bumped in favor of Nick Baumgartner. [9] Palmer would have been the oldest man to qualify for the Winter Olympics in history. [7]
Palmer began Palmer Snowboards in 1995, as an offshoot of one of the most popular names in extreme sports.
As per his Facebook page, Palmer Snowboards closed its U.S.-based office doors in 2008 and the brand is only available for purchase within Europe. Rumor is that a Swiss owner bought the brand with inheritance, as Palmer Snowboards' online shop is in German and an account to shop with can only be created with an address in Europe.
In 1995, Palmer took up the sport of mountain biking, spending time around some of the sport's foremost authorities. Just one year later, Palmer began competing in the professional mountain biking circuit. Palmer shocked the mountain biking world by proving to be a more than worthy competitor. Palmer placed seventh in downhill at the second 1996 World Cup event of the year, before finishing second in downhill at the 1996 UCI World Championships, missing the top spot by just .15 seconds. Palmer threw his goggles down in frustration after finishing as he rolled through the finish area, showing his determination to obtain nothing but first [6] The event drained Palmer, however he was quick to warn the 1996 champion Nicolas Vouilloz of France in a post race interview that after he gained some more fitness Palmer would soon be beating Vouilloz in the races. In the same interview, Palmer was quick to compliment Vouilloz as the best rider in the world based on his record of wins. [3]
By the end of the biking season, Palmer was number five in the World Cup rankings and seventh in the NORBA National Championship Series. [3] Palmer's debut year landed him a $300,000 annual contract with Mountain Dew Specialized Bicycles team, making Palmer the highest-paid mountain biker in the world. [10]
In the 1999 Mountain biking season, Palmer won the NORBA downhill championship in the dual slalom category. [7]
Palmer is a professional motocross racer. Palmer claims that motocross is his favorite sport, dubbing it "the best sport in the world." [4]
In 2003, he began his professional motocross career racing on the Supercross Tour. Palmer qualified for the tour on his first 125cc Supercross main event, an almost unheard of feat. [6]
Between the snowboarding and mountain biking seasons, Palmer took up two new sports, reaching similar levels of success.
In 1998, Palmer won the Toyota Celebrity Grand Prix auto race. [6] His interest in auto racing continued, winning the Pike's Peak Hill Climb auto race in 2000 as well as the Jeep King of the Mountain championship in 2008. [7]
In 2001, Palmer went head to head with the world's best professional skiers, winning the Ski cross event at the 2001 Winter X Games, as well as the ski cross gold at the Gravity Games of the same year.
Throughout the 1990s, Palmer was the lead singer of a punk band called Fungus. [11]
Palmer teamed up with Activision, publishers of Tony Hawk's Pro Skater , to create Shaun Palmer's Pro Snowboarder for the PlayStation 2 in 2001.
Snowboarding is a recreational and competitive activity that involves descending a snow-covered surface while standing on a snowboard that is almost always attached to a rider's feet. It features in the Winter Olympic Games and Winter Paralympic Games.
Ross Powers is an American world champion halfpipe snowboarder and Olympic gold medalist. Hailing from South Londonderry, Vermont, he is currently the director of the snowboarding program at the Stratton Mountain School in Stratton, Vermont and a philanthropist.
The X Games are an annual action sports event organized, produced and broadcast by ESPN. Coverage is also shown on ESPN's sister network, ABC. The inaugural X Games were held during the summer of 1995 in Providence and Newport, Rhode Island, United States. Participants compete to win bronze, silver, and gold medals, as well as prize money.
Shaun Roger White is an American former professional snowboarder and skateboarder. He is a five-time Olympian and a three-time Olympic gold medalist in half-pipe snowboarding. He holds the world record for the most X Games gold medals and most Olympic gold medals by a snowboarder. He has also won 10 ESPY Awards throughout his career in various categories.
Terje Håkonsen is a Norwegian professional snowboarder. He is considered one of the most influential snowboarders in the history of the sport. In the book The way of the snowboarder, Rob Reed wrote that "Haakonsen took the young sport of snowboarding and revolutionized nearly every aspect of it".
Gretchen ElisabethBleiler is an American former professional halfpipe snowboarder. She won a silver medal at the 2006 Olympics.
John Tomac is an American former professional cyclist who competed from 1985 to 2005. He was a versatile rider who competed in multiple disciplines including; BMX racing, cross-country, road racing, trials riding and downhill racing. Tomac became a mountain bike racing icon in the late 1980s as the sport began to develop beyond its formative years. At the time of his retirement in 2005, he had won more mountain bike races than anyone in the sport. In 1991 he was inducted into the Mountain Bike Hall of Fame and, in 2004 he was inducted into the United States Bicycling Hall of Fame.
The Gravity Games was a multi-sport competition originating in Providence, Rhode Island that was broken down into Winter and Summer adaptations. The competition featured a variety of extreme sports such as aggressive inline skating, skateboarding, freestyle motocross, BMX freestyle and snowboarding.
Ski cross is a skiing competition which incorporates terrain features traditionally found in freestyle skiing with courses which include big-air jumps and high-banked turns. In spite of the fact that it is a timed racing event, it is often considered a type of freestyle skiing. What sets ski cross apart from other alpine skiing disciplines is that it involves more than one skier racing down the course. Any intentional contact with other competitors like grabbing or any other forms of contact meant to give the competitor an advantage leads to disqualification.
Todd Richards is a snowboarder from Paxton, Massachusetts. Richards helped introduce "skate style" at a time when the sport was mainly influenced by alpine racing events. Richards grew up skateboarding on the East Coast and translated his skills on four wheels to riding a halfpipe made of snow.
Snowboarding is a sport at the Winter Olympic Games. It was first included in the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan. Snowboarding was one of five new sports or disciplines added to the Winter Olympic program between 1992 and 2002, and was the only one not to have been a previous medal or demonstration event. In 1998, four events, two for men and two for women, were held in two specialities: the giant slalom, a downhill event similar to giant slalom skiing; and the half-pipe, in which competitors perform tricks while going from one side of a semi-circular ditch to the other. Canadian Ross Rebagliati won the men's giant slalom and became the first athlete to win a gold medal in snowboarding. Rebagliati was briefly stripped of his medal by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) after testing positive for marijuana. However, the IOC's decision was reverted following an appeal from the Canadian Olympic Association. For the 2002 Winter Olympics, giant slalom was expanded to add head-to-head racing and was renamed parallel giant slalom. In 2006, a third event, the snowboard cross, was held for the first time. In this event, competitors race against each other down a course with jumps, beams and other obstacles. On July 11, 2011, the International Olympic Committee's Executive Board approved the addition of Ski and Snowboard Slopestyle to the Winter Olympics roster of events, effective in 2014. The decision was announced via press conference from the IOC's meeting in Durban, South Africa. A fifth event, parallel slalom, was added only for 2014. Big air was added for 2018.
Hannah Teter is an American snowboarder. She is an Olympic champion, having won the gold medal in the halfpipe at the 2006 Winter Olympic Games in Torino, Italy and silver at the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver. She has also won bronze at the 2005 FIS World Championships at Whistler, British Columbia, and has a total of six World Cup victories in her career. In January 2010, Teter was named to the US Team for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. She won the silver medal in women's halfpipe at the Vancouver Games. Teter came in fourth at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi.
Greg Minnaar is a South African World Champion mountain bike racer competing in downhill cycling. He has won four world championships, the second most amongst still active racers, and third all time behind Nicols Vouilloz's seven titles. He currently competes in the UCI Downhill MTB World Cup. Minnaar has the most world cup wins ever, with 23 career victories. He rides for the Santa Cruz Syndicate team.
The Best Male Action Sports Athlete ESPY Award is an annual award honoring the achievements of a male athlete from the world of action sports. It was first awarded as part of the ESPY Awards in 2004 after the non-gender-specific Best Action Sports Athlete ESPY Award was presented the previous two years. The Best Male Action Sports Athlete ESPY Award trophy, created by sculptor Lawrence Nowlan, is presented to the male adjudged to be the best action sports athlete in a given calendar year. Balloting for the award is undertaken by fans over the Internet from between three and five choices selected by the ESPN Select Nominating Committee, which is composed of a panel of experts. It is conferred in July to reflect performance and achievement over the preceding twelve months.
Andrew Neilson is a Canadian snowboarder who currently resides in North Vancouver, British Columbia. Neilson was a member of the Canadian national snowboard team and competes in snowboard cross.
Snowboard cross, also known as boardercross, is a snowboard competition in which four to six competitors race down a course. Snowboard cross courses are typically quite narrow and include cambered turns, various types of jumps, berms, rollers, drops, steep and flat sections designed to challenge the riders' ability to stay in control while maintaining maximum speed. It is not uncommon for racers to collide with each other mid-race.
Trent Milton is an Australian Paralympic snowboarder who, at the age of 41, competed for Australia at the 2014 Winter Paralympics in Sochi. An active surfer, snowboarder, stand up paddle boarder, motorcross and mountain biker, he took up Para-snowboarding after a motorcycle accident that cost him his lower right leg. He made his international debut after just 18 months. After his first season resulted in fifth and sixth-place finishes, he was ranked 20th in the world. He finished 20th in the Men's Para-Snowboard Cross at the 2014 Winter Paralympic Games in Sochi.
Ester Ledecká is a Czech snowboarder and alpine skier. At the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, Ledecká won gold medals in the super-G in alpine skiing and in the parallel giant slalom in snowboarding, becoming the first person to not only compete in the Winter Olympics using two different types of equipment but further to win two gold medals and do so at the same Winter Olympics. She was the second woman to win Olympic gold in two separate disciplines but the first to do so at the same Winter Olympics. She was the first Czech to win the parallel giant slalom in snowboarding at the FIS Snowboard World Cup.
The men's halfpipe competition in snowboarding at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics was held on 9 February (qualification) and 11 February (final), at the Genting Snow Park in Zhangjiakou. Ayumu Hirano of Japan, the 2014 and 2018 silver medalist, won the gold, his third Olympic medal. Scotty James of Australia improved from the 2018 bronze to the 2022 silver. Jan Scherrer of Switzerland won the bronze, his first Olympic medal.
