Snowboard Cross: World Cup season opens in Argentina

This coming weekend, the FIS Snowboard World Cup 2009 season also gets underway in the snowboard cross discipline, beginning the Olympic season, which will culminate at the Games in Vancouver, Canada. The snowboard freestyle riders are already a step ahead of their cross counterparts in this respect, having started their season two weeks ago. After the snowboarding elite visited Argentina for the first time ever last year, valuable World Cup points and qualification for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver are once again at stake at the ski resort around the winter sports town of Chapelco.

The eagerly anticipated season opener in snowboard cross very nearly went down the drain—and quite literally. The weather in the Andes caused the organizers in Chapelco serious problems in recent weeks, with heavy, persistent rain making it difficult to prepare the slopes for competition. Thanks to the tireless efforts of the volunteers, however, nothing now stands in the way of the World Cup race in Argentina, even if snowboarders and fans will have to make do with a slightly shortened course. The modern snowboarding equipment used by the top athletes makes for exciting races even in the most difficult conditions, such as those currently found in the Andes around Chapelco.

In snowboard cross, the aim is to beat up to three rivals in a head-to-head race and advance through the knockout rounds to the final. Several qualifying runs will take place on Friday to determine the matchups for the heats, with athletes racing individually against the clock. The winner of the first of a total of five World Cup events will then be decided in the aforementioned format on Saturday. Reigning Olympic champions Tanja Frieden (Switzerland) and Seth Wescott (USA) are the favorites in Chapelco, Argentina.