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Photo: AFP
1998 Olympic champion:
Event not held
2001 World Cup overall champion:
Karine Ruby, France (pictured above)
2001 World champion:
Ursula Bruhin, Switzerland
2001-02 World Cup Standings
1. Isabelle Blanc, France
2. Karine Ruby, France
3. Doris Guenther, Austria
4. Julie Pomagalski, France
5. Marion Posch, Italy
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France's Karine Ruby is the most dominant alpine snowboarder in the history of the young sport.
The Olympic giant slalom champion from the Nagano 1998 Olympics enters the 2002 Salt Lake Games with a collection of 110 FIS World Cup medals in six disciplines over a spectacular career that dates back to 1995.
The reigning overall World Cup champion altered her off-season training in anticipation of the Olympic roster switch from the standard, two-run GS to the head-to-head parallel giant slalom. Ruby focused on the different style of turns required to succeed in PGS, while racing head-to-head with other riders. The hard work paid off.
In true Ruby fashion, the French veteran captured three World Cup PGS races in 2001-02 before the Olympics, the most of any season in her storied career.
Ruby is determined to become the first two-time Olympic gold medallist in snowboarding, but the speedy superstar is one of many French riders expected to duke it out with the mighty Austrians in what could shape up as a two-country battle.
Ruby is joined atop the list of contenders by teammate Isabelle Blanc, the current PGS World Cup leader. The 26-year-old Blanc is a parallel-racing specialist who has boarded to two gold, one silver and one bronze PGS medal on the World Cup circuit this season heading into Salt Lake.
Blanc is hungrier than most riders entering the 2002 Games, after a disappointing fall in the second run of the Nagano GS four years ago shattered her Olympic medal hopes. Blanc sat second behind Ruby after the first heat, but fell at the last gate of the course and was disqualified.
France's third formidable alpine racer in Julie Pomagalski. The 21-year-old first-time Olympian won gold at the World Cup PGS event in Mont Ste-Anne earlier this season, and heads into the Games on an upbeat note, having just won silver in the final pre-Olympic PGS in Kreischberg.
France's primary foe in women's alpine boarding comes in the form of a potent Austrian squad.
Doris Guenther, picked by CBC snowboarding analyst Rob Stevens to win gold in Salt Lake, leads the powerful Austrians into Salt Lake. The 23-year-old rider is enjoying a career-year on the World Cup tour, winning three consecutive PGS events at one point.
Other Austrian contenders include the Riegler sisters, Manuela and Claudia, and Maria Kirchgasser-Pichler.
Technical specialist Marion Posch of Italy also plays into the gold medal mix. The technical specialist, who is a two-time parallel slalom world champion, collected a PGS World Cup win last season and won the final PGS race heading into Salt Lake, just two weeks before the Opening Ceremonies.
The partisan American crowds in Park City will be rooting for Rosey Fletcher. The silver medal-winner at the 2001 world championships is expected to shine with the Olympics on her home turf.
The Anchorage, Alaska native has just one World Cup PGS podium result this season, but has captured three gold medals in the non-Olympic event of parallel slalom. The head-to-head racing success and boisterous Park City crowd should play into her favour.
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