Jake Vedder has been racing snowboardcross since he was eight years old, but 2016 was a true breakout year for the Michigander, who calls the town of Pinckney home. Vedder scored multiple Nor-Am Cup podiums and his first World Cup appearance, but his big break was winning a gold medal for the U.S. at the 2016 Winter Youth Olympic Winter Games.
Vedder was invited to train with U.S. Snowboarding's snowboardcross development team in 2016. Watch for this young phenom to do well on the international circuit in years to come.
Earlier this month, four U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association athletes took time out of their busy training schedules to learn from some U.S. military veterans.
Cole Johnson is a snowboarder out of Reno, NV who makes his home and his turns at Squaw Valley Resort.
Johnson's competitve career began in earnest in 2012 when he was named to the U.S. Junior World Championships team. He has been climbing the ranks ever since and a handful of Nor-Am wins in 2016 landed him a spot on the snowboardcross development team with U.S. Snowboarding.
Rosie Mancari is an Alaskan native that has been tearing up the Nor-Am snowboardcross circuit for years. She joins U.S. Snowboarding in 2016, looking to continue her success at the World Cup level.
Mancari grew up in Anchorage, AK, but graduated high school early to move to Steamboat Springs, CO to train with the Steamboat Springs Winter Sports Club. The move paid off--she was soon hitting podiums; her first Nor-Am win came at Sun Valley, ID in 2013. In 2016 she took home three wins, earning her a spot on the U.S. snowboardcross development team.
Having tossed his skis in favor of the snowboard at the young age of five, Michael was snowboarding competitively by age 10. By the time he was 15, he had placed 2nd in the USASA Nationals halfpipe, won the USASA Nationals in SBX in the 14-15 age group, and the USASA Open Class. Recently named to the US Junior World Team, Mike is a member of the International Snowboarding Training Center, has ridden with the Mount Snow Competition Team, Stratton Mountain School, and various Rev Tours and Grand Prixs.
Jarod Minghini was born and raised in West Virginia, and grew up on the slopes at Snowshoe Mountain Resort. At 17 he moved to Lake Tahoe with his brother Bobby for better riding and training as well as more opportunities to progress in the sport. In just his first year living in Tahoe, he was able to qualify for Junior Worlds and win the Revolution Tour overall title.
Born near the resort town of South Lake Tahoe, Roger grew up snowboarding. He entered his first competition at the age of six and swept the USASA Nationals overall title for several years in a row, competing in slalom, giant slalom, halfpipe, slopestyle and snowboardcross.
Meghan Tierney is a New Jersey girl who picked up snowboarding at Okemo Mountain Resort at the age of 10. Her father moved the family to Edwards, CO so that she and her siblings could focus on snowboarding.
Steamboat Springs local, Mick Dierdorff will crush an SBX course like the best of them, but he may be the only pro SBXer who can also take down an Elk.
Steamboat Springs native Mick Deirdorff started racing snowboardcross at ten years old and has been working his way up the pro ranks ever since. With a career-high World Cup finish at La Molina in 2015 (fifth) and a sixth-place finish at Feldberg in 2016, Dierdorff is on the come up.
His second season with U.S. Snowboarding, Dierdorff calls 2016 a breakthrough season. In addition to making the World Cup final at Feldberg, he took second place at the USASA Championships to finish off the season.
Trevor Jacob has gone from the Nitro Circus to the Olympic circus in two short years while scoring a World Cup snowboardcross victory in the process. (Getty Images/Cameron Spencer)
Seven snowboardcross athletes, including Olympic silver medalist Lindsey Jacobellis, have been nominated to the 2014 Olympic team. (Photo: Sarah Brunson/U.S. Snowboarding)
Lindsey Jacobellis (blue bib) closed out the Olympic selection period for snowboardcross with a third-place finish in the FIS Snowboard World Cup Sunday in Vallnord.
Trevor Jacob rode to his career first snowboardcross victory Saturday in the FIS Snowboard World Cup in Vallnord, putting him in prime position to make the Olympic team with just a month to go before Sochi.
Olympic medalists Seth Wescott (Sugarloaf, ME) and Lindsey Jacobellis (Stratton, VT), along with seven-time X Games gold medalist Nate Holland (Squaw Valley, CA), headline U.S. Snowboarding’s 2013-14 snowboardcross team.
VIDEO: Jacob New National Champion
Snowboardcross newcomer Trevor Jacob wins the Sprint Grand Prix at Canyons Resort. His first career win also earns Jacob the title of U.S. National Champion. Hagen Kearney came in a close second.
The multi-talented Trevor Jacob has an impressive resume. He’s popular on the hit series ‘Nitro Circus,’ he’s been invited to the Dew Tour for halfpipe, and is a National snowboardcross champion. At the end of the 2012 season, Jacob decided to stop competing in halfpipe and slopestyle and make snowboardcross his main focus. It was a bold but wise move--he made the U.S. Olympic snowboardcross team in 2014, placing ninth in Sochi.
Native Alaskan and Olympian Callan Chythlook-Sifsof is a veteran of snowboardcross with over 30 World Cup starts and numerous titles, including her becoming the first native Alaskan to make an Olympic team. (Oliver Kraus/FIS)
Lindsey Jacobellis (blue bib) closed out the Olympic selection period for snowboardcross with a third-place finish in the FIS Snowboard World Cup Sunday in Vallnord.
Seven-time X Games gold medalist Lindsey Jacobellis teamed up with Olympian Callan Chythlook-Sifsof to mount a joint comeback, taking second in the women’s team World Cup in Montafon on Sunday.
VIDEO: U.S. 2nd in Veysonnaz
Faye Gulini and Callan Chythlook-Sifsof finished 3rd in the FIS Snowboard World Cup team snowboardcross in Veysonnaz, Switzerland behind Italy and Canada.
Bristol Bay is located 400 miles from Anchorage, way out in what Alaskans call “the bush,'' and is accessible only by air or boat. Callan Chythlook-Sifsof emerged from that wilderness and landed on the snowboardcross scene in 2007, winning the Visa U.S. Snowboardcross Championships and taking third in the first World Cup of her career.
