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Culture

Judging is arguably the toughest job in competitive snowboarding—as the controversies of the last Olympics proved. But how and why are such decisions made?

Words: Tristan Kennedy

It took fewer than five seconds for Gaz Vogan to realise there’d been a horrible mistake. Along with his fellow snowboard judges, Vogan had just submitted his scores for Max Parrot’s second run in the Olympic men’s slopestyle final – resulting in a combined total of , enough to put the Canadian rider in first place. “Then, literally two seconds later, we saw the same replay that the whole world saw,” says Vogan. “We were like, ‘Shit, shit, shit.’”

“In a so-called ‘free sport’, the idea of ranking one rider above another has always felt a bit awkward”

The replay angle in question clearly showed that Parrot had grabbed his knee, not his board – an execution error almost on a par with a fall. But there’s no VAR, TMO or Hawkeye in competitive snowboarding. Unlike football, rugby or tennis, there’s no mechanism for reviewing or retracting a decision after it’s been submitted to the Olympic Broadcast Service (OBS) for transmission. The judges were told that there was nothing that could be done. “I remember turning to Beggsy,” Vogan says, referring his fellow judge, Adam Begg of Australia, “and saying: ‘Shit is about to hit the fan.’”

Vogan was not wrong. On the BBC, NBC, and the other networks beaming the contest into millions of homes, the opprobrium was almost instant. Ed Leigh’s remark to Tim Warwood – “We can’t shy away from this Tim, there is a glaring judging error putting Max Parrot in gold” – was one of the more measured responses. And by the time Vogan, Begg, and their colleagues stepped out of the judging booth and switched them on, their phones were on fire.

“It’s amazing to me that some people would go and search out emails, or personal telephone numbers, just to send shit to the judges,” head judge Iztok Sumatic told Whitelines in

My first memories of Marcus Kleveland date back to the Burton European Open in Marcus was 12 years old back then and I remember how impressed I was about his riding style, even at this young age. Of course I had heard about his capabilities before, but actually seeing him do well on the slope was a different thing. He ended up 12th that time, only to come back the year after to win the Junior Slopestyle.

The same year he nailed his first Triple Cork, aged

Now doing well in the park is one thing, but taking the skills to the backcountry is another. I have seen world-class riders struggle hard or even fail in powder.

Everything is different out there: finding spots, hiking (sometimes for hours), building jumps and, last but not least, landing in untracked snow is almost the polar opposite to the usual routine of riding park kickers.

You better team up with some experienced backcountry riders to show you around and choose a terrain that is easily accessible and offers lots of different spots. So when Eero Ettala and Heikki Sorsa offered Marcus the chance to join them on a trip to Japan it was a no brainer for him.

Asahidake, Japan, a couple of weeks later: a huge step-down over a cliff is not exactly the easiest option for the first try, but Eero knows the spot like no other and its just a short hike within sight of our hotel.

Marcus is scared, but amped at the same time. Eero shows him how to prepare the takeoff, how to estimate the flight curve and the landing, how much speed to take and, after some bails and some good advice, he stomps his first proper Backside Three, no biggie.

The next couple of days Marcus gets more and more confident. He starts to look for his own spots, prepares and hits them without Eero‘s or Heikki‘s help. His floaty style fits the terrain perfectly and even though he seems to have a hard time hiking, you can see that he has a lot of fun out here in the backcountry

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