January 19, 2015

And The Winner Is…

 

 

We are very excited to announce the winner of the Style Of Sport “We Love Winter” Snowboard Giveaway. Kaitlin Carmel (funny name coincidence) has won the brand new GNU B-PRO GOLD KAITLYN FARRINGTON snowboard. This Limited Edition board is the signature ride of 2014 Olympic Women’s Half-Pipe gold medalist, Kaitlyn Farrington. Congrats Kaitlin, and thanks everyone for all your submissions and great reasons to love winter… we do too!

On an unexpected note, last Friday Kaitlyn Farrington announced her retirement from competitive snowboarding due to a degenerative spine condition called congenital cervical stenosis, a narrowing of the canal formed by the vertebrae through which the spinal cord runs. When we spoke to Kaitlyn in early December, she told us about a back injury that was going to keep her off the contest circuit for a while, but a recent MRI revealed a much more serious condition. According to ESPN, a fall on a jump in Austria in October, by far not the worst of her career, left her numb from the neck down for a few minutes. She recovered fairly quickly, and in fact was able to snowboard the next day. When she returned home to Salt Lake City, she began physical therapy, but with lingering issues, she decided to see a spine specialist who diagnosed her condition.

“I thought I was too young to hear the word ‘retirement,’” she told ESPN. “There’s so much I still want to do in the halfpipe. I thought I’d be pushing the sport for many more years and try to make the Olympic team in 2018. But the risk of snowboarding in a halfpipe or hitting jumps is too high. It’s been tough to accept, but I’m retiring from competitive snowboarding.” The good news is while she can no longer compete, she can still snowboard and enjoy what she loves so much about winter.

We are big fans of Kaitlyn’s here at Style of Sport, and expect nothing but greatness from this young champion. In her typical upbeat manner she told us, “Thank you for all the support and I’m looking forward to always having 100% FUN as I take on my next endeavors!”

Attitude is everything! And to the other Kaitlin… enjoy the ride!

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PHOTOGRAPH BY CHRIS WELLHAUSEN

 

January 7, 2015

Kaitlyn Farrington Likes Gold

 
FROM OLYMPIC GOLD TO BRUT GOLD (ARMAND DE BRIGNAC CHAMPAGNE).
2014 OLYMPIC SNOWBOARD WOMEN’S HALF-PIPE GOLD MEDALIST, KAITLYN FARRINGTON

 
Kaitlyn Farrington surprised the snowboard world and even herself last winter, winning the gold medal in the Women’s Half-Pipe competition at the Winter Olympics in Sochi. She was the last snowboarder named to the U.S. Team at the final qualifying event, yet edged out three former gold medalists — defending champion Torah Bright (2010), Hannah Teter (2006), and Kelly Clark (2002) — to win 2014 Olympic Gold. Kaitlyn’s goals for the Olympics were just to make it to the finals, but executing one of the most technically demanding sequences of the night, highlighted by a backward 720-degree (2 turn) spin and a backward 900-degree (2½ turn) spin, Kaitlyn put together the run of a lifetime.

GNU has released the Limited Edition B-PRO GOLD KAITLYN FARRINGTON signature snowboard. Gold and sparkly like her medal, this snowboard can be yours with a click of the mouse, because GNU is giving one away to a lucky Style of Sport reader! All you have to do is tell us why you love winter. We figure if you want this snowboard you do! Deadline for entries is Jan. 15 at midnight. (CONTEST DEADLINE HAS NOW PASSED. THE WINNER WILL BE ANNOUNCED MONDAY, JAN. 19!)

We recently spoke to Kaitlyn about her whirlwind 2014 and goals for 2015. Much was made during the Olympics of the cruddy conditions of the half pipe and I was curious how she dealt with that obstacle. “Everybody was riding the same pipe and dealing with same problem,” she told me. “You couldn’t let it wear you down.” Qualifiers, semi-finals and finals were all the same day, and she competed in all three, giving her more time in that pipe to practice. “I had nothing to lose dropping into the finals and was just trying to make it as fun as possible. When I’m having fun that’s when I ride the best.”

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Kaitlyn is looking forward to a relaxing post Olympic season “not chasing the contests”, although the Dew Tour and X-Games are on tap, as well as the Mt. Baker Banked Slalom. This legendary event is having its 30th anniversary this year, but usually conflicts with bigger contests during the season. It is regarded as the predecessor to boardercross and has been won by some of the biggest names in the history of snowboarding. The winner’s prize is a Duct Tape trophy and an embroidered Carhartt jacket. It’s a far cry from Olympic Gold, but “to just go snowboarding and enjoy it again” sounds kind of like the dream life to us!

Photographs top to bottom: Shay Williams, ©Valdrin Xhema/epa/Corbis

 

February 3, 2014

Olympic Style

 

Image Map

DRESS LIKE AN OLYMPIAN!

After much anticipation, the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympic Games are just a few days away, with the opening ceremonies this Friday, February 6. Olympic fever is running high and what better way to support Team USA than dressing just like them! Much of the official gear and apparel the athletes will be wearing is available in spectator editions, and many sport brands have released special red, white, blue, and star-spangled pieces for those excited to support the home team during their own outdoor athletic pursuits! A portion of the proceeds from many of these items go to support the athletes. So click above to shop and bring home your own gold with these limited edition sweaters, jackets, vests, helmets, goggles, sunglasses and more, guaranteed to keep the Olympic flame burning long after the games are over.

LEFT COLUMN: NIKE AEROLOFT 800 SUMMIT JACKET $450. A replica of what the Team USA Olympic athletes will be wearing on the podium in Sochi, this 800-fill Aeroloft insulated jacket provides hi-tech warmth and style. Available in silver and gold, titanium nano-coating reflects UV to retain body heat, while laser cut ventilation provides breathability. See the entire Nike Sochi Collection. PERFECT MOMENT AURORA JACKET $350. Although Perfect Moment is a French company, we share the red, white and blue! This weatherproof softshell jacket is designed for active use, both on and off the mountain. It is made with technical Schoeller Energear™, a revolutionary new fabric that retains heat by reflecting the body’s Far Infrared Rays (FIRs) back to the wearer. The theory is FIRs, like the suns rays, provide not just heat but energy that affects performance and overall wellbeing. Not bad for a patriotic little warm-up jacket! RALPH LAUREN TEAM USA CEREMONY ALEIGH BOOT $395. Designed exclusively for the 2014 U.S. Olympic Team, the limited-edition classic Aleigh boot will make its debut in the opening ceremonies and is available for us here at home too.

CENTER COLUMN: JULBO EXPLORER $125-190. Julbo’s top-of-the-line mountaineering sunglass, the Explorer, is designed to perform in high altitude environments, where eyes are susceptible to damage from the sun and snow reflections. Explorer is available with either polarized, photochromic, or anti-fog lenses and come with removable eye protecting side shells. They are shown here in white, with red and blue accents, for added Olympic style. UVEX P1US CHROME SOCHI EDITION SKI HELMET $275. Uvex helmets will be seen on over 500 athletes in Sochi and from The Race Collection comes this style infused blue chrome ski helmet. Designed with the safety standards required of Olympic level competition, the P1US is also 16% lighter than traditional helmets, as well as being 100% recyclable. THE NORTH FACE INTERNATIONAL NUPTSE VEST $160. The North Face is an official sponsor of US Freeskiing and is the US Freeskiing official competition uniform supplier. Amply insulated with 700-fill goose down, this North Face classic, the Nuptse vest, is extremely warm, lightweight, and compressible for travel. This Limited Edition is available in the official colors of a variety of countries, and is shown here in the striped French edition. Read More

 

August 5, 2012

It Was A Photo Finish

 

 

Last night Jamaican Shelly Ann Fraser-Pryce defended her title as the world’s fastest woman edging out Carmelita Jeter of the US by .o3 seconds to win the 100-meter final. I love this image of the photo finish which NBC flashed on the screen.

The photo finish uses a special camera that exposes only a sliver of the image by light coming through a vertical slit. Any still object along that slit appears as a streak and thus these beautiful abstractions emerge.

Photo-finish cameras are used at track meets, horse racing, swimming and anywhere else where the winner is determined by competitors crossing a finish line. In track, any part of the torso which hits the tape first wins, which is why you often see these dramatic lunges at the finish. The margin of victory is often hundreths of a second and only the camera knows the winner.

Below are some other famous photo finishes…

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BEJING 2008

In 2008 Michael Phleps outtouched Milorad Cavic by .01 seconds in the 100 meter Butterfly to win his seventh of eight record breaking medals. This image is by Heinz Kluetmeier of Sports Illustrated, who was the first person to put an underwater camera in the pool at the 1992 games.

 

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1956 HOTHAM HANDICAP

Perhaps the most famous photo finish of all time was a triple dead heat with three horses hitting the finish line simultaneously at the Aqueduct Racetrack in New York.

 

August 3, 2012

Martin Schoeller’s Olympic Athletes

 

 

Internationally recognized photographer, Martin Schoeller, was commissioned by Time magazine to shoot three covers for their Olympic issue, featuring gymnast Gabby Douglas, hurdler Lolo Jones and swimmer Ryan Lochte as the subjects. All the images and behind the scenes stories can be seen on the TIME LIGHTBOX.

 
 

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