Seth Wescott Defends Snowboardcross Gold

By Brandon Penny — 02/15/10
U.S.A’s Seth Wescott has successfully defended his title as Olympic champion. In 2006, he won the gold medal in the Olympic debut of snowboardcross. Monday afternoon, he defied all odds to win his second gold medal.
The 33-year-old started the day off poorly when he finished 17th of the 32 riders in qualification. In qualifications, each snowboarder races against the clock for the best time. In every round after qualifications, four snowboarders race simultaneously on a course that consists of turns, jumps, berms, and drops. A few hours later, Wescott came back from his poor performance and was able to finish first in both his one-eighth-final and quarter-final heats. In his semifinal race, he came in second to American teammate Nate Holland.
For most of the final race, Wescott was in fourth behind the other three riders. On the final jump, he came out of nowhere and managed to close the gap on Canadian Mike Robertson. Wescott held him off at the finish line to win the gold. Nate Holland’s spinout a few seconds into the race caused him to finish in fourth place. France’s Tony Ramoin won the bronze.
In the four years since his first Olympic gold, Wescott has not won any international competitions. But he did win silver at the 2007 World Championships and the 2010 Winter X Games.
This is Team U.S.A.’s second gold medal of these Olympics. The U.S. leads the overall medal count with 8 medals. France is in second with 4 medals. But Switzerland leads the gold medal count with 3, one more than the U.S.