Head-to-Head& Olympic Hopeful Lisa Kosglow Shines in Parallel Giant Slalom

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They make those hours count. The coaches often set a course that the athletes go through and inspect. "There are a lot of tactics involved in reading terrain and gate placement," [Lisa Kosglow] explains. Then the racers start running the course, which the coaches have set up with a timing system. "We train a lot with the Swedish national team," Kosglow says, "and we'll set two courses and run head-to-head so we can get practice."

Officials don't re-set the course during a competition, either. "The entire field--the men and the women--is taking these runs without resetting so we end up with huge ruts," Kosglow says. "It's a lot of fun but it's not very pretty. There's a lot of falling going on in the parallel format. The quicker recovery is all part of the strategy, you're never out. You can never know what's going to happen. I think it's analogous to life."

"Injuries happen," she explains simply. "It's part of being active. I don't think snowboarding is a dangerous sport, and that if you go out and snowboard you're going to break your back. I was doing Super G when I broke my back. Most people don't go 70 mph on a snowboard. I don't do that anymore, either."

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Head-to-Head& Olympic Hopeful Lisa Kosglow Shines in Parallel Giant Slalom

Lisa Kosglow learned to ski at Bogus Basin when she was in the sixth grade. She swapped the skis for a snowboard around the time she turned 15 years old, and went on to compete in two Olympic Games. In the giant slalom she placed eighth in Salt Lake City, Utah (2002),...

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