Congrats to Sage Kotsenburg of Park City, Utah, for winning the first gold of the Sochi Olympics. It was the first Olympic competition in slopestyle – a most spectacular sport. Young sportspeople in North America and Scandinavia are as creative as ever – to the delight of Nordic sports fans… and probably to the consternation of their parents since the new sports disciplines aren’t exactly as safe as curling.
Special thanks to the UK slopestyle team and especially to Jamie Nicholls, who finished sixth with a very decent 83+ score out of 100. The guy grew up in Yorkshire and started training on dryslopes, then advanced to an indoor snow dome in Leeds. Now he’s one of the world’s top 10 in slopestype, which I guess is a huge achievement for someone who did not grow up in the Alps or the Rockies or Oppland.