Graham Watanabe – Men’s snowboardcross

A member of the U.S. Alpine snowboarding team in 2000, Graham Watanabe has a background in racing, but switched full-on to snowboardcross with the Olympic announcement. At the start of the 2005 season he jumped on the opportunity for a trip to Chile with friend Nate Galpin. The trip proved profitable when he boosted his World Cup career in a big way, winning the opening SBX event in Chile to become the first American man ever to win a World Cup SBX. He turned that into a solid season on the World Cup tour and an eventual ticket to the 2006 Olympic Winter Games. Watanabe had the intimidation factor in 2009 as he pulled in successful results consistently. He had three World Cup top-10 finishes, but capped it off big time with a win in the USA to please the home crowd in Sunday River, Maine. Thanks to his success there as well as a second place at the first stop of the Visa Snowboardcross Championship Series at the U.S. Snowboarding Grand Prix at Boreal Resort in Calif. The icing on Watanabe’s season: a silver medal at the winter X Games.

Source: Channel Apa