Chapter 16

The 2014 Winter Olympics — Sochi, Russia

Now that the 1080 is out there, Kelly has been working on new tricks to take with her to Russia. She’s using her 2012–2013 season to solidify and perfect what she’ll unleash on the world. “I know the placing that I want to get, I know what I’m going to be happy with, and I know what is obtainable for me, so I kind of mix all of those together. I throw them all into a big pot, and then I look to see if this is the run that is actually within reach and would potentially win the contest.”

In a sport that is ever-changing and progressing, she hopes that the run she plans is the run that will be good enough to land her on the podium. It’s a tricky situation for her to develop her run but not let too much info get out there, which would allow her competitors to come after her. She doesn’t want to have them chase her down at the wrong time and beat her with the run that she thought no one else could do.

U.S. Snowboarding Halfpipe Coach Ricky Bower has worked with Kelly in the past, and he knows what it will take for her to win. He first met her at the U.S. Grand Prix in Maine back in 1998. He was a competitor at the time, but he noticed her because of how big she was going out of the pipe. What did he think? “This little girl rips.”

Bower admires what Kelly did at age 18 during the 2002 Olympics. “She ushered in a new era for women by combining the technical aspects of flips and spins while going big doing it.”

Going big is what Kelly does, and Bower saw her lay down probably one of the best runs of her career at the 2006 Olympics. The run included big tricks that would have put her in the top spot on the podium if she’d nailed her landing. However, the end result was a bad landing and fourth place. But the last two years have proven that Kelly doesn’t give up or hold back.

“Now Kelly is in a league of her own,” said Bower. “Her domination over the last two years has forced the other women to learn new tricks and do them bigger. Her biggest competition is her own teammates, and Kelly has been the wood that fuels the fire of progression on the U.S. Snowboarding team. She still goes bigger than anyone and can do 1080s with big Cab 7s after them. No one else in the world is even close to doing that. Her riding has raised the whole level of our team because as much as they all like Kelly, they really want to beat her.”

Kelly on Mount Snow with her first “real” snowboard. She was eight years old.

And then there was the frontside 1080 at the 2011 Winter X Games. “Kelly has set the bar for women’s snowboarding again,” said Bower. This competitiveness might be the factor that allows the U.S. Women’s Snowboarding team to dominate at the Olympics. “The U.S. Women are so good because they feed off of the progression of one another. They have an interesting relationship you don’t find in most sports. They all seem to genuinely like each other. And in many cases, [they] are very good friends; while at the same time, they are [each other’s] fiercest competition,” said Bower. The tenacity they have for achieving a better performance, along with the number of halfpipes in the country, equals a formula for victory.

The one thing that separates Kelly from other snowboarders is that she’s made it a priority to focus on the process rather than the outcome, according to Bower. This includes her learning new tricks and incorporating them into a run that she is pleased with. For some, competing throughout the season can lead to one letting the results dictate the training and outcome. This isn’t the case with Kelly; she focuses on progressing rather than just doing enough to win, explained Bower.

Kelly’s 16-win streak that ended in March 2012 proves Bower’s point. Kelly works hard — not just at her tricks, but also in body conditioning and preparation. If her next season is anything like her last, she’ll be grabbing big air, stomping out tricks, and riding the podium all the way to gold at the 2014 Olympics.