STEAMBOAT SPRINGS, CO (April 10, 2015) - The U.S. Ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame will induct 10 athletes and sport builders, including Olympic snowboarding legend Ross Powers.
Powers won the first U.S. Olympic medal in snowboarding, a bronze, at the 1998 Nagano Games and was the Olympic halfpipe champion in 2002, leading an American podium sweep. Powers dominated the sport of snowboarding in his day, winning every major event in halfpipe snowboarding from the FIS World Championships to the X Games to the US Open. Powers retired from halfpipe competition in 2006 and turned his focus to snowboardcross racing, narrowly missing making the 2010 Olympic SBX team.
Now Powers gives back to the sport of snowboarding as snowboarding program director at his alma mater Stratton Mountain School, as well as through his nonprofit organization, the Level Field Fund. For the thirteen years, The Level Field Fund has supported elite level athletes with grants for training and traveling. Recipients of the Level Field Fund include 2014 Olympic medalists Alex Diebold, Devin Logan and Nick Goepper along with Olympians Danny Davis, Liz Stephen and Andy Newell.
Powers, only the fourth snowboarder ever to be inducted into the U.S. Ski and Snowboarding Hall of Fame, will be a member of the Class of 2014 along with World Alpine Championship medalist Erik Schlopy, noted big mountain skier Chris Davenport, ski instruction pioneer Curt Chase and goggle innovator Bob Smith. Others include resort designer Joe Cushing, World Cup race winner Kristina Koznik, alpine development leader John McMurtry, women’s innovator Jeannie Thoren and Ralph Miller, one of the great American ski racers from the 1950s.
Their induction will take place in Steamboat Springs, CO on April 11. There will also be a special enshrinement ceremony weekend for Honored Members at the home of the Hall of Fame in Ishpeming, Michigan in September.