Snowboarding has been on the Olympics menu since Nagano 1998, along with women's ice hockey. Now the sport has expanded with more events beginning this year at Sochi. 31 nations with at least one quota spot for any of the snowboard events this year, per FIS standards.
The men's competition has had more dominance than on the women's side. The men's parallel and halfpipe is a perfect example. Only two multiple winners out of those events. Philipp Schoch (Switzerland) is the only multiple winner of the parallel giant, with his wins coming at both Salt Lake City 2002 and Turin 2006, while Shaun White (United States) won the halfpipe twice: Turin and again at Vancouver 2010. Seth Wescott (United States) is the only winner of the boardercross, winning that event at both Turin and Vancouver.
Parity has been the theme in the women's events. Three different winners of the parallel giant, with Nicolien Sauerbreij (Netherlands) the most recent at Vancouver. Halfpipe has had four different winners, including Torah Bright (Australia) who won that event at Vancouver. And finally, boardercross has had two different winners: Tanja Frieden (Switzerland) at Turin and Maelle Ricker (Canada) at Vancouver.
Schoch, Wescott and White are the only multiple gold medalists in snowboarding in the Olympics with two each. Ten different women have gold once in snowboarding in the Olympics.
New to snowboarding at the Olympics beginning this year are the men's and women's parallel slalom and slopestyle.
The Rosa Khutor Extreme Park (pictured) is the venue for the snowboarding at Sochi.
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