Vic Wild won two medals in the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics, the first snowboarder to win multiple gold medals in a single Olympic games.
Contributed photo
WHITE SALMON — Snowboarder Vic Wild will race in the mens snowboard parallel giant slalom event representing Russia at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics. Wild, 35, will race in the qualifiers round on Feb. 7 with hopes of making the finals that same evening. These Olympics will be Wild’s last chance to win another medal as Carol Wild-Delano, Vic’s mom, confirmed that he plans to retire after the 2022 Olympics.
Born and raised in White Salmon, Wild was given his first board at the age of 7. His first board was a directional snowboard, which is designed to ride best in one direction. Two years later, despite growing up on a one-directional board, he was already racing competitively with the Mt. Hood Meadows Snowboard Team. A couple more moves to Wenatchee, Wash., and Colorado led Wild to train at the Steamboat Springs Winter Sports Club. Since 1932, the winter sports club has produced more than 90 Olympic athletes. Thirteen athletes at this year’s Beijing Olympics have ties to Steamboat Springs, and Wild is one of them.
For about a year he raced in World Cup competitions for the U.S. Snowboard team. In 2010, the United States Ski and Snowboard Association (USSA) disbanded the team. Wild continued to compete unattached and with no technical support. Wild would register himself into races, book hotels and travel reservations, and maintain his equipment on his own dime.
“It was a very stressful time,” said Carol. “He called me one day and said he was done trying after he knew a top ranking would be unattainable in his current situation.”
Vic Wild competes in the parallel giant slalom event at the 2013 FIS Snowboard World Cup in Slovenia.
Miha Matavz photo
Wild and his girlfriend, Russian snowboarder Alena Zavarzina, returned stateside in search of direction. The couple visited Canada, Mexico and everywhere in between. Upon coming back to White Salmon, Wild announced he and Zavarzina planned to get married. He added that the Russian National team had been in contact to train and compete with them. He opted to represent Russia, and finally be a part of an organization that provided the appropriate resources to become the boarder he had always dreamed about.
In 2013, he entered his Olympic campaign ranked no. 9 in the world. Wild qualified for both the parallel slalom and the parallel giant slalom in his own backyard in Sochi, where the 2014 Winter Olympics were held.
In both slalom competitions, opponents race head-to-head twice. The loser of the first run gets a head start equivalent to the time difference in the first race. In the parallel giant slalom Wild managed a atop the podium with a gold medal victory over Switzerland’s Nevin Galmarini. Wild won the first run by half of a second, and still managed to beat Galmarini a second time for his first gold medal. Wild wasn’t finished though.
A young Vic Wild, second from right, with his family at Mt. Hood Meadows.
Contributed photo
After winning a gold medal a few days earlier Wild entered the shorter, parallel slalom, with an opportunity to make history. No Olympic snowboarder had won more than one gold medal in any single games. A thrilling semifinal race saw Wild fall one second behind Austria’s Benjamin Karl — an eternity in a 30 second race — only to comeback and win by one-tenth of a second. Wild swept the finals and became the first Olympic snowboarder to win two medals in the same games.
Four years later at the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympics, Wild couldn’t manage a similar result, as he finished 10th in the parallel giant slalom. Wild has continued to train and hold a spot on Russia’s slalom team for the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.
Wild has been training in Austria over the past month preparing for his last ride. The qualifying and final rounds for the parallel giant slalom are scheduled for Feb. 7 at 6:40 p.m. (PCT) and 10:30 p.m.
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