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The Most Iconic Moments In Olympic Halfpipe History

Nail biting finishes, classic haircuts and the most underwhelming pipe run of all time

As we pointed out earlier, there’s nothing quite like Halfpipe for sheer spectacle. As the riders are preparing to drop into the pipe in Beijing, we take a trip down memory lane to revisit all our favourite moments from Olympic Halfpipe over the years.

Nagano, 1998

Snowboarding rocketed out of its subculture and onto the world stage at the 1998 Nagano Games, but the most iconic part about Nagano wasn’t who was competing, but who wasn’t competing. Terje Haakonsen, who was the halfpipe gold medal favourite, gave a big middle finger to FIS and the IOC by boycotting the Olympic Games.

“Fuck FIS”

Salt Lake City, 2002: Heikki Sorsa

Sure, Team USA were a dominating force at Salt Lake in 2002, with a clean sweep of the men’s podium and Kelly Clark taking the women’s gold, but let’s be real, all eyes were on Heikki Sorsa with his sick mohawk, punk rock attitude and this killer run.

Turin, 2006

Another stellar year for the Yanks sweeping 4 medals across men’s and women’s competition. Hannah Teter went big representing for the ladies, and we saw Shaun White make his Olympic debut and take home his very first Olympic gold.

Vancouver, 2010

Coming back for his second games, Shaun had already sealed victory with his first run, and instead of taking it easy he decided to throw down, for the first time ever in competition, his brand-new Double McTwist 1260 aka the Tomahawk. He may not have been everyone’s favourite rider, but there’s no denying Shaun was pretty much untouchable at this point.

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Torah Bright was going big in the green and gold and snagged the first Aussie women’s halfpipe gold in history with this high-flying clinic.

He may not have won a medal, but he won the hearts of the core snowboard scene with his no fucks given attitude. Kazu Kokubo was banned from the Olympic Opening Ceremony by Japanese officials after refusing to wear his team-issued uniform ‘correctly’. Well played Kazu, stick it to the fucking man.

Kazu in the middle gives zero fucks

Sochi, 2014

2014 was a wild time if you were tuning into the Olympics. Back to back Gold medalist Shaun White was going for the three-peat took a nasty fall, getting hammered by the lip of the pipe.

Switzerland’s Iouri Podladtchikov stepped up to the plate and hit a home run to take home the Gold instead.

Pyeongchang, 2018

2018 was the year Chloe Kim could finally prove herself on the biggest stage in snowboarding, and at just 17 years old she became the youngest woman to ever win a snowboarding gold medal. Constantly pushing the envelope of what can be expected in women’s halfpipe, she’s without a doubt one of the best to ever do it.

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We saved the best for last. No, really we did. Is this the most unexpected Olympic Halfpipe run of all time? Yes, we know she’s on skis which is funny enough but just watch this. Fair play to her though, she’s competed at more Olympics than we have, so who’s the real winner here?

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