What’s Behind USA’s Shocking Stumble In X Games Snowboard SuperPipe?

In the span of three days, a streak of wins for American snowboarders stretching all the way back to Winter X Games’ nascence in 1997 was snapped—improbably, in both men’s and women’s disciplines.

As confirmed by ESPN’s research department, X Games Aspen 2020 marked the first time ever that American athletes were shut out of the podium in men’s snowboard SuperPipe...and women’s snowboard SuperPipe.

On January 23, Australian Scotty James kicked things off when he took gold in men’s SuperPipe for the second consecutive year and third time overall. He was joined on the podium by Japan’s Yuto Totsuka and Switzerland’s Jan Scherrer—and no Americans, despite the fact that the U.S. could claim five snowboarders in the eight-athlete final.

Then, two days later, the trend continued for the women, as Spain’s Queralt Castellet won her first SuperPipe gold, followed by Japan’s Kurumi Imai and Haruna Matsumoto taking silver and bronze, respectively.

To say that the U.S. has historically been dominant in this discipline would be an understatement. Coloradan farmer Doug Waugh is the father of halfpipe snowboarding, creating the Pipe Dragon used in the 1998 and 2002 Winter Olympics. Team USA men and women have claimed 8 of 12 Olympic gold medals in the halfpipe discipline since it was added to the program in the 1998 Nagano Games.

Both genders had represented the U.S. on the X Games halfpipe podium since 1997. So what happened?

To put the results of X Games Aspen 2020 into perspective, we must first look backward. Any discussion of X Games halfpipe snowboarding must include Shaun White, who racked up 10 SuperPipe medals between 2000 and 2017, including eight golds and six consecutive wins between 2008 and 2013. Veteran halfpipe snowboarder Danny Davis’ SuperPipe results are nothing to sneeze at, either; he won back-to-back gold medals in 2014-15 and took bronze in 2019.

For the women, Kelly Clark made sure the U.S. finished in medal position year after year, medaling in SuperPipe 13 times between 2000 and 2018. For the next generation, 19-year-old Chloe Kim has taken the baton, making the podium in seven of seven SuperPipe starts, an X Games-record streak among all snowboarders. And Aspen’s own Gretchen Bleiler took four gold and one silver in SuperPipe between 2003 and 2010.

In 2020, there is no White representing the U.S. in the men’s discipline. Clark retired in 2019. And Kim sat the year out of X Games competition to concentrate on her studies at Princeton. When all these factors combined in 2020, it set the stage for the rest of the world to bump the Americans off the podium entirely.

Unlike many other nations represented in the Olympics, the United States doesn’t provide support to its Olympic programs on a federal level. Each sport’s governing body, at its own discretion, can provide some degree of funding to the athletes on the national team.

Though the X Games is considered the epicenter of halfpipe snowboarding’s progression, the training support Olympic snowboarders receive from their respective countries certainly makes a difference when the world’s best converge in Aspen.

“The Olympics gives these countries an opportunity to put some money behind snowboarding. You’re seeing Germany, Japan, Norway, all these countries now wanna be involved in the sport because it’s an Olympic sport,” says Danny Davis.

It’s no surprise that Japanese snowboarders claimed three of six possible SuperPipe podium spots at X Games Aspen. The women also swept the Big Air podium. The nation, which hosted the debut of halfpipe snowboarding at the 1998 Nagano Games, has made a concerted effort in recent years to produce snowboarders who can contend on a global stage. Providing robust support to its snowboarding national team, Japan found footing on the men’s halfpipe podium at both the 2014 Sochi and 2018 Pyeongchang Games, with superstar Ayumu Hirano earning silver both times.

“You’re starting to see more people coming into the sport and getting really dialed, as these countries put money behind training, buying airbags, trampolines,” Davis said. When it comes to the SuperPipe (defined by its 22-inch walls), specifically, it’s a “niche product,” says Chris Castaneda of Snow Park Technologies (SPT), X Games head course builder. Per Castaneda, only six SuperPipes exist in the United States.

“Really, it’s dependent upon the ski resort how well they are built and maintained,” Castaneda says. While he doesn’t think the rest of the world has higher quality SuperPipes than the United States, he acknowledges “there’s a lack of really good halfpipe builders and operators within the industry in this country and throughout the world.”

A SuperPipe, or even a smaller halfpipe, is a big investment for a resort. “It’s a lot of time and money to put in, let alone the equipment needed to maintain a halfpipe,” says Castaneda. At X Games alone, SPT employs a team of 18 operators working in conjunction with Buttermilk Ski Resort to keep the SuperPipe in tip-top shape for competition.

It’s not hard to draw the conclusion that if the United States were willing to support the ski and snowboard federation on a federal level, including fronting the money to build and maintain SuperPipes, Olympic and non-Olympic snowboarders alike would reap the benefits of increased training.

Is this the beginning of a larger slide for the United States in the halfpipe discipline?

Not likely. Kim is expected to return to competition next year, and many of the sport’s other young guns, including Toby Miller (19), Maddie Mastro (19), Chase Blackwell (20), Lucas Foster (20), Jake Pates (21), Joshua Bowman (21) and Arielle Gold (23) figure to contend for years to come.

We don’t have to wait long for our next chance to take the temperature of American halfpipe snowboarders again. Dew Tour kicks off Thursday, February 6, in its new home at Copper Mountain, Colorado, and Josey, Payes, Mastro, Miller and Gold will have another stage to show the world what the U.S. can do on the pipe.