An American Snowboarder Who Competes For Russia Wins Two Gold And Catapults Russia To Top Of Medal Standings

It seems an American snowboarder named Vic Wild has been competing in the Sochi Olympics for Russia and just won double gold in Parralel Giant Slalom and Parralel Slalom. Through a marriage to a Russian national and his frustrations with a lack of support back home – and you gotta assume a pretty nice investment from Russia – he swtiched teams and now has seen all his hard work pay off. He's still a hard-booter though. Pretty funny shit. 

Wild rallied to victory in the men’s parallel slalom on Saturday, stunning Austria’s Benjamin Karl in the semifinal then edging Zan Kosir by .11 seconds to cap four dizzying days that validated his decision three years ago to marry Russian snowboarder Alena Zavarzina and move to Moscow with his talent in tow.

The roars of “Vitya” still ringing in his ears after a raucous flower celebration, Wild exhaled; the pressure valve that’s been a fixture in his life since he left the U.S. was finally released.

“I continued snowboarding because I thought I could do something special,” he said. “I thought I had never reached my potential (in the U.S.) and I wanted to see how good I could get. That’s why I’m a Russian.”

Okay, why did he end up in Russia?

Wild used to snowboard for America, but he never quite clicked with the United States Ski and Snowboard Association. Wild is alpine snowboarder, which basically means that he snows down mountains and around flags at really high speeds. But alpine snowboarding involves no halfpipes or jumps or 720s, so it lags behind X Games-style events in popularity and funding, even from a national organization.

Exactly. Wild says that when he was competing with the Americans, he lacked things like dedicated coaching and even travel arrangements. For instance, the USSA had a budget of $24.1 million in 2012, but used to spend less than $150,000 on alpine snowboarding.

Well, America doesn't have an alpine snowboarding program anymore: it was dissolved in 2010 after the winter Olympics in Vancouver. So in 2011, faced with retiring from snowboarding or figuring out another way to compete internationally, Wild moved to Russia with his wife.

…And Russia just accepted him onto its Olympic team?

Hey, you do what you gotta do, right? And top top it all off his wife won a bronze medal in women's snwboard racing as well. I have a feeling they'll be well taken care of for a while!