Snowboard slopestyle’s debut in the Winter Olympics is a big deal, but the athletes haven’t treated it like a solemn occasion. There was a sense that the party never really stopped, as many of the snowboarders goofed off even as their scores were going up.
Perhaps it shouldn’t be surprising that slopestyle gold medal-winner Jamie Anderson might be having the best time of all, then (although men’s winner Sage Kotsenburg isn’t exactly being a wallflower).
Anderson, 23, clearly put out a lot of effort on Sunday, but she didn’t make it seem like work, as the Los Angeles Times’ Lisa Dillman notes.
“It’s like playing,” Anderson said. “We’re pretty much snowboarding on a playground up there.”
Really, though, the press conference wasn’t a stuffy affair (even if the show “Downton Abbey” almost celebrates stuffiness).
In a pressure-packed atmosphere in which many athletes might view that four years of waiting and training are on the line, it’s refreshing to observe slopestyle’s silliness … and spoice.
