Kelly Clark

Highlights

At age 19, she won an Olympic Gold Medal in 2002 in the women's snowboarding halfpipe

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Clark was born in Newport, R.I., where she lived for seven years before moving with her family to West Dover, Vt., Clark began snowboarding at age 8. As a fourth grader, she started a snowboarding club with her elementary school classmates because students at her school were given half days on Wednesdays for extra-curricular activity. After graduating high school in 2001, Clark moved to Mammoth Lakes, Calif., where she bought a condo in 2003. Also an avid surfer, she first learned the sport in the summer of 1997 on Block Island, R.I., but does most of her surfing in Los Angeles and San Diego

Despite entering the Torino Games as the defending gold medalist, Kelly Clark was not a favorite to win the 2006 title. Until she arrived in Italy, that is. She consistently had some of the best training runs, and carried it over to the competition when she was the first rider of the day and posted the best first-run qualifying score. Clark was in fourth place going into her final run, when she executed a flawless run -- until she tried to land a 900 on her last hit. She fell just before crossing the finish line, and thus remained in fourth place. Compatriots Hannah Teter  and Gretchen Bleiler took gold and silver, respectively.

Clark had one of her most successful seasons in 2004-05. She placed second in three U.S. Grand Prix events and in February claimed her first World Cup victory in four years -- on the Olympic halfpipe in Bardonecchia, Italy. It was her first season back after missing eight months of competition due to an injured knee, on which she had arthroscopic surgery. While away, some of the younger riders began landing 900s -- jumps with two-and-a-half rotations -- but by the middle of the season, Clark too was performing 900s. She says she likes having the up-and-coming riders around to "push me to one-up them."

The youngest member of the U.S. snowboarding team at the Salt Lake Games, the 18-year-old Clark fell hard in a practice run just days before the competition, sustaining a bruised tailbone and broken wrist. She missed a day's worth of practice, but recovered by competition time, and sat in second place with 40.8 points after her first Olympic run. Being last of the 12 competitors in the final, Clark was guaranteed at least a silver based on her first-run score. Needing a 43.1 or better for gold, Clark's second run earned a 47.9. "The crowd was going wild and I could hear them even over my headphones," said Clark, who listened to a Blink-182 song during the competition. As for her injuries: "I had so much adrenaline today I didn't really feel much of anything," she said. It was the first U.S. gold medal of the Salt Lake Games.

Rather than competing as a member of the U.S. snowboarding team, Clark is part of an athlete-founded group called The Collection, which also includes Bleiler and 2002 Olympic gold medalist Ross Powers. The group travels together and has its own representation, and unlike other teams and organizations, the athletes make all the decisions.

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