December 31, 2009 E-MAIL PRINT

Powers builds on his Foundation of success

by Matt Boxler/

Okemo Mountain Resort snowboard ambassador and Olympic gold medalist Ross Powers poses with his daughter Victoria. (photo: Skye Chalmers)

Okemo Mountain Resort snowboard ambassador and Olympic gold medalist Ross Powers poses with his daughter Victoria. (photo: Skye Chalmers)

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Vermont’s Ross Powers (Okemo) served notice to the world’s snowboardcross racers that he means business heading into the Vancouver Olympics. The sport’s most decorated halfpipe champion has turned his focus back to his racing roots, and the results are not surprising.

Powers was the top American finisher (third place) in the Visa U.S. Snowboardcross World Cup at Telluride on Dec. 19, the second of five Olympic qualifying events. A top-four World Cup result is the lead qualifying criteria for SBX racers to land a spot on the Olympic team.

Powers and Seth Wescott (Sugarloaf, Maine) are the leading athletes vying for a spot on the U.S. Olympic team, as Wescott placed second in the first World Cup SBX event of the season in Argentina.

It would be the fourth Olympics for Powers. He won a bronze medal in halfpipe in 1998 and a gold medal in halfpipe in 2002, and was a 2006 alternate on the U.S. halfpipe team in Torino, Italy. Wescott is the 2006 Olympic gold medalist in SBX.

“The first few rounds went great, I was getting good starts up top,” Powers said after his final race at Telluride. “Final race, I’d been getting great starts all day, and got a bad start up top. I tried to catch up, landed flat on everything, but luckily the guys had a little mix-up on Turn 4 and I came through and got on the podium.”

Powers has been competing in the sport since age 8, and has won more halfpipe titles than any snowboarder in history. But racing SBX is nothing new.

“I grew up doing a little of everything, racing gates, doing freestyle,” Powers said. “I used to battle it out with Wescott every weekend. In ’06, I was the alternate in the halfpipe, went over to Torino, watched these guys do snowboardcross, and I was fired up about it.”

From his start as a fourth-grader competing in major events, Powers received support from numerous sponsors and organizations to help him achieve his competitive dreams. Born and raised in Londonderry, Vt., he has remained loyal to his home, and to talented young riders fighting to achieve their dreams.

Not long after his 1998 bronze medal performance, Powers became aware of a promising young rider who was forced to leave the Stratton Mountain School due to financial hardship. Powers made an anonymous donation at the time to help the athlete stay enrolled in the school and pursue his dreams.

Shortly after, he launched the Ross Powers Foundation so he could help others facing similar hardships. Since 2001, he has been donating 100 percent of the proceeds from the snowboard camps he runs at Okemo Mountain toward the effort. The nonprofit foundation awards grants annually to athletes in need.

“World-class competition, especially the Olympics, should feature the best athletes with the greatest drive, commitment and determination,” Powers said. “Unfortunately, given how expensive winter sports can be, too often these events feature the best athletes with the greatest drive, commitment, and determination — with a certain level of financial backing.”

As his legend continues to grow in the sport, in a new discipline, Powers remains in touch with his roots.

“Ross is a class act in every way, without the slightest hint of arrogance or self-absorption,” said his agent, Peter Carlisle.

Another Olympic medal isn’t likely to change anything about that.

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