Holland's Snowboard Record
Nate Holland has won gold medals at the Winter X Games four times in a row, a record for snowboard cross competitors. Before deciding to pursue boardercross exclusively, he competed as a freestyle snowboarder, placing high in events such as the Lake Placid World Cup, Tandadalen World Cup, the Mammoth Mountain Grand Prix, and the Sierra Nevada World Cup. In his first Olympic outing at the 2006 Torino Winter Games, Holland came in a distant 14th. Since then, though, he has been a dominant force in snowboard cross and looks like a good bet to bring home a medal from Vancouver.Holland Goes Down at the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympic Games
After cruising through the semi-finals in fine shape, Nate Holland looked like a sure bet to land on the podium in the medal run on February 15. Partway through the race, Holland spun out, dashing his hopes. The U.S. did, however, win gold as defending Torino Olympic champion Seth Wescott came from the back of the pack to win. Silver went to Canadian Mike Robertson and Tony Ramoin of France took the bronze.What is Snowboard Cross?
Snowboard cross is a head-to-head downhill race on snowboards. In the Olympics, four boarders compete in heats until the final, winner-take-all race for the medals. Snowboard cross is not timed - the winner is the first in the group to cross the finish line.Holland's SBX teammates on the 2010 U.S. Snowboarding Team are Nick Baumgartner, Iron River, MI, Graham Watanabe, Sun Valley, ID, and Seth Wescott, Sugarloaf, ME.
Sources: U.S. Olympic Committee, 2010 Vancouver Olympic Winter Games, Squaw Valley USA
