By Shannon Dunn
EXPN.com
Feb. 21, 2002
Phew-I survived the Olympics! I’m back home in one piece and have amazing memories from Salt Lake and Park City. The media was trying to compare the X Games to the Olympics before we left for Salt Lake, and I have to say there is absolutely NO comparison! The X Games is awesome and has really put snowboarding on the map and I think in a positive and really fun way. The X Games is just about the most fun event of the year. They do an amazing job! The Olympics, on the other hand, can only be summed up as “The Olympics.” I’ll tell you all about it, but there is no other event in the universe like it and it’s a once in a lifetime event-even if you’ve gone more than once. Each Olympics stands out as a special life event. For the opening ceremonies on the 8th, we had just a short time after practice to get suited up in our opening ceremonies garb. We had to wear these little beret hats - kinda funny. Cheffie cooked us some to-go treats and we drove to SLC. We met all the U.S. teams at the Olympic village and then all walked to a gymnasium somewhere near by. We were in a holding room while the main dude explained that we would meet the President. They named 12 people who would personally greet the President, Picabo, Michelle Kwan, etc. Then all the athletes stood around a rope that set us just a few feet from the President’s speaking stand and the World Trade Center flag. After George W. gave his speech saying how proud he was of all the athletes there, he came and shook everyone’s hand! He started close to where I was standing and I was in shock. I shook his hand and said, “God bless and nice to meet you.” He looked me in the eyes and said, “Good luck and good job.” I don’t actually know exactly what he said much after that because I was stunned! He was very genuine to each athlete and very mellow. He shook each person’s hand for a while. We all met Mrs. Bush as well. I didn’t get a photo, so I met up with all the other snowboarders and we took a team photo with Mr. President. I asked him if he was going to watch snowboarding and he said yes, and I asked if he would be up there on the snow. He said, “No, I have a nation to run!” That’s right Mr. President!! You go! Everyone there was so stoked-it was way cool! Then we all got ushered into an indoor stadium to wait for our countries turn to walk to the opening ceremonies. We went very last since the U.S. is the host country. When we were ready to go, the snowboard team decided we wanted to be the last athletes to walk out in the opening ceremonies. We had to duke it out with the women’s hockey team! They walked last in Nagano and they wanted to be in the back again. We all hid behind curtains and they walked ahead of us and they were surprised. So, we were the last people to walk into the stadium for the U.S. Before we actually walked into the opening ceremonies, we had to walk a couple miles to get there. That was pretty exciting, because we could hear everyone cheering from the ceremony and then could see all the helicopters above protecting the area. There were sharpshooters from the tops of the buildings. It was a pretty funny walk… Danny and I were chopping it up-singing the Atlanta football chop song. When we finally got to the stadium and it was our turn to walk in everyone was buzzing! We were all so stoked! It was amazing to see the crowd and feel and be a part of the excitement! We did a lap-it felt like we were in a Disneyland parade, but not! Then we sat down in the stands and watched the show. The President came and sat by the athletes, and one girl asked if the President could say hi to someone she had called on her cell phone! The show was unbelievable-my favorite part was all of it-ha! We walked back to the Olympic village when it was over and then went to get some food. Then Danny and I lost the group and decided to trade our beret hats with the military dudes. Danny got a sick military wool beret with the patch and pin-the same style the guys in Afghanistan were wearing on TV. I traded for a camo-style with a pin. We were stoked. When we finally found our group, it took us a while to get home because of traffic. We had practice the next day and then Sunday was the women’s final. Contest day was nuts. I didn’t sleep all that well the night before. I felt really good in the morning and was really excited for the day-it had finally come! The competition went the same as all the practice days, but a little faster. We had 45 minutes of practice and then took our first qualifying run. The top six snowboarders from the first qualifying run go straight to the finals and then everyone else takes another run to decide the next six. The crowd kept filling in with so many people! My score after my first qualifying run was surprisingly low. I knew at that moment the judges weren’t going to like what I had for the day! For some reason, it didn’t faze me. My goal was to have the time of my life and ride the best I possibly could. I made the finals but I was nervous because I didn’t want to fall on my second qualifying run. I changed my run up a little and did a McTwist to a 360. That run was pretty weak in my book and it scored 3rd highest! I knew I wasn’t going to agree with the way the judges were scoring-it was totally against the way I see snowboarding! The judges were all about amplitude, but didn’t really have a stoke for technical tricks or smoothness. My theory is if you go big, you better make it look good, or go smaller and make it look good. To flap around looks really bad to me. For the finals I changed up my run and got scored super low. I was shocked, but still having the time of my life and riding just the way I wanted. My last run I decided to do my Rodeo 7 at the bottom. I hadn’t landed it all day and was just visualizing it. I just thought, this is the Olympics-I have to pull it because I can do that trick! So I had the run of my life and stuck everything I wanted to. It ended up 5th, but I was super stoked on the entire day. There was about 17,000 people there and when Tricia, Kelly or I would go, the entire crowd was going off…I could barely hear the music. It was unbelievable-a rare experience!! Kelly pulled a winning score on her last run and it was an awesome sight! She did really well and way to keep the gold in the States. Tricia did so well-she rode the best I’ve ever seen and finally pulled her McTwist! Yeah, Trish! What an amazing day. I watched the men’s event the next day from the stands with Dave and the Snowboarder Magazine crew. It was such a rad perspective from the stands. The crowd went off and it was so nerve-racking watching the American guys! It was harder to watch them, then to do the event myself! Ross had the sickest run and I have never seen anyone do such a huge air in the pipe-and that was for his contest run!! It was amazing! He clutched the gold on his first run! The crowd went nuts. Then Danny went and had two, stomped killer runs-he did so well! Then it came down to J.J.’s last run and he pulled it for the bronze. Tommy got scored really low and should’ve gotten 4th or 5th. Daniel [Franck] had one of the most technical runs of the day. After his first run, Daniel hurt his face and said he couldn’t even see for his last run! So he did the sickest run pretty much blind! He didn’t get scored well since the judges are clueless to tech stuff, but I was impressed. The U.S. men swept the event-they are champs and my heroes!!!! It was the best day ever! I know I’m forgetting to write about some funny events, but let me just tell you that Danny is classic! The funniest person ever! He brought his “team manager” with him, a male blow up doll, and would put it different places during the trip. One morning “management” was by the sink washing dishes, one night he slept beside Kelly to keep her company… I’m so stoked everyone got a medal, but especially Danny, because he is the real-deal kid! He is the total opposite of the media darling and the media doesn’t know how to deal with it. It’s pure comedy! I’m proud to be an American!!!!!! Way to go Olympic snowboard team!!! Thanks to all my friends and family, sponsors for their support through this Olympics! What an experience! Shannon
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EXPN.com
Feb. 21, 2002
Phew-I survived the Olympics! I’m back home in one piece and have amazing memories from Salt Lake and Park City. The media was trying to compare the X Games to the Olympics before we left for Salt Lake, and I have to say there is absolutely NO comparison! The X Games is awesome and has really put snowboarding on the map and I think in a positive and really fun way. The X Games is just about the most fun event of the year. They do an amazing job! The Olympics, on the other hand, can only be summed up as “The Olympics.” I’ll tell you all about it, but there is no other event in the universe like it and it’s a once in a lifetime event-even if you’ve gone more than once. Each Olympics stands out as a special life event. For the opening ceremonies on the 8th, we had just a short time after practice to get suited up in our opening ceremonies garb. We had to wear these little beret hats - kinda funny. Cheffie cooked us some to-go treats and we drove to SLC. We met all the U.S. teams at the Olympic village and then all walked to a gymnasium somewhere near by. We were in a holding room while the main dude explained that we would meet the President. They named 12 people who would personally greet the President, Picabo, Michelle Kwan, etc. Then all the athletes stood around a rope that set us just a few feet from the President’s speaking stand and the World Trade Center flag. After George W. gave his speech saying how proud he was of all the athletes there, he came and shook everyone’s hand! He started close to where I was standing and I was in shock. I shook his hand and said, “God bless and nice to meet you.” He looked me in the eyes and said, “Good luck and good job.” I don’t actually know exactly what he said much after that because I was stunned! He was very genuine to each athlete and very mellow. He shook each person’s hand for a while. We all met Mrs. Bush as well. I didn’t get a photo, so I met up with all the other snowboarders and we took a team photo with Mr. President. I asked him if he was going to watch snowboarding and he said yes, and I asked if he would be up there on the snow. He said, “No, I have a nation to run!” That’s right Mr. President!! You go! Everyone there was so stoked-it was way cool! Then we all got ushered into an indoor stadium to wait for our countries turn to walk to the opening ceremonies. We went very last since the U.S. is the host country. When we were ready to go, the snowboard team decided we wanted to be the last athletes to walk out in the opening ceremonies. We had to duke it out with the women’s hockey team! They walked last in Nagano and they wanted to be in the back again. We all hid behind curtains and they walked ahead of us and they were surprised. So, we were the last people to walk into the stadium for the U.S. Before we actually walked into the opening ceremonies, we had to walk a couple miles to get there. That was pretty exciting, because we could hear everyone cheering from the ceremony and then could see all the helicopters above protecting the area. There were sharpshooters from the tops of the buildings. It was a pretty funny walk… Danny and I were chopping it up-singing the Atlanta football chop song. When we finally got to the stadium and it was our turn to walk in everyone was buzzing! We were all so stoked! It was amazing to see the crowd and feel and be a part of the excitement! We did a lap-it felt like we were in a Disneyland parade, but not! Then we sat down in the stands and watched the show. The President came and sat by the athletes, and one girl asked if the President could say hi to someone she had called on her cell phone! The show was unbelievable-my favorite part was all of it-ha! We walked back to the Olympic village when it was over and then went to get some food. Then Danny and I lost the group and decided to trade our beret hats with the military dudes. Danny got a sick military wool beret with the patch and pin-the same style the guys in Afghanistan were wearing on TV. I traded for a camo-style with a pin. We were stoked. When we finally found our group, it took us a while to get home because of traffic. We had practice the next day and then Sunday was the women’s final. Contest day was nuts. I didn’t sleep all that well the night before. I felt really good in the morning and was really excited for the day-it had finally come! The competition went the same as all the practice days, but a little faster. We had 45 minutes of practice and then took our first qualifying run. The top six snowboarders from the first qualifying run go straight to the finals and then everyone else takes another run to decide the next six. The crowd kept filling in with so many people! My score after my first qualifying run was surprisingly low. I knew at that moment the judges weren’t going to like what I had for the day! For some reason, it didn’t faze me. My goal was to have the time of my life and ride the best I possibly could. I made the finals but I was nervous because I didn’t want to fall on my second qualifying run. I changed my run up a little and did a McTwist to a 360. That run was pretty weak in my book and it scored 3rd highest! I knew I wasn’t going to agree with the way the judges were scoring-it was totally against the way I see snowboarding! The judges were all about amplitude, but didn’t really have a stoke for technical tricks or smoothness. My theory is if you go big, you better make it look good, or go smaller and make it look good. To flap around looks really bad to me. For the finals I changed up my run and got scored super low. I was shocked, but still having the time of my life and riding just the way I wanted. My last run I decided to do my Rodeo 7 at the bottom. I hadn’t landed it all day and was just visualizing it. I just thought, this is the Olympics-I have to pull it because I can do that trick! So I had the run of my life and stuck everything I wanted to. It ended up 5th, but I was super stoked on the entire day. There was about 17,000 people there and when Tricia, Kelly or I would go, the entire crowd was going off…I could barely hear the music. It was unbelievable-a rare experience!! Kelly pulled a winning score on her last run and it was an awesome sight! She did really well and way to keep the gold in the States. Tricia did so well-she rode the best I’ve ever seen and finally pulled her McTwist! Yeah, Trish! What an amazing day. I watched the men’s event the next day from the stands with Dave and the Snowboarder Magazine crew. It was such a rad perspective from the stands. The crowd went off and it was so nerve-racking watching the American guys! It was harder to watch them, then to do the event myself! Ross had the sickest run and I have never seen anyone do such a huge air in the pipe-and that was for his contest run!! It was amazing! He clutched the gold on his first run! The crowd went nuts. Then Danny went and had two, stomped killer runs-he did so well! Then it came down to J.J.’s last run and he pulled it for the bronze. Tommy got scored really low and should’ve gotten 4th or 5th. Daniel [Franck] had one of the most technical runs of the day. After his first run, Daniel hurt his face and said he couldn’t even see for his last run! So he did the sickest run pretty much blind! He didn’t get scored well since the judges are clueless to tech stuff, but I was impressed. The U.S. men swept the event-they are champs and my heroes!!!! It was the best day ever! I know I’m forgetting to write about some funny events, but let me just tell you that Danny is classic! The funniest person ever! He brought his “team manager” with him, a male blow up doll, and would put it different places during the trip. One morning “management” was by the sink washing dishes, one night he slept beside Kelly to keep her company… I’m so stoked everyone got a medal, but especially Danny, because he is the real-deal kid! He is the total opposite of the media darling and the media doesn’t know how to deal with it. It’s pure comedy! I’m proud to be an American!!!!!! Way to go Olympic snowboard team!!! Thanks to all my friends and family, sponsors for their support through this Olympics! What an experience! Shannon
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