Q and A with snowboardcross gold medalist Seth WescottAmerican snowboardcross rider Seth Wescott made history on Feb. 16 in a come-from-behind run to win the first Olympic gold medal awarded in snowboardcross. His next goal is to expand the discipline’s popularity in the U.S. through a series of instructional clinics called the ‘Visa Seth Wescott Ride With Me SBX Tour.’ The first stop was Saturday, Feb. 25, at his home mountain, Sugarloaf, Maine. The governor of Maine attended along with 3,500 people, including a few hundred snowboarders. While the dates and locations for the other two stops were still being negotiated, he visited New York City and spoke to Ski Racing about his vision for SBX, his competitive future and other little-known tidbits about his Torino experience.

Ski Racing: What do you hope to accomplish with these clinics?

Seth Wescott: The goal is to bring snowboardcross into the mainstream by creating events and gaining acceptance at ski resorts. We want the areas to furnish places for kids to train, for amateurs to compete, and eventually we hope to develop a pro tour with a points system that could be used toward making the U.S. team and earning a World Cup spot. The Europeans have such a huge advantage right now with their European Cup series. Even though that series is open to Americans, it’s tough at that age to get over there.

SR: Since you can’t just go ride a snowboardcross course every day at a resort, how do you train for SBX?

SW: I train by free-riding. I do it with a little different mindset. I’ll see and use terrain features differently.

SR: In general, what do you think of snowboarding’s acceptance into the mainstream?

SW: It’s been bizarre for me to see the transition. As a kid, I wasn’t allowed on the mountain. I remember getting sent home from Sugarloaf because I didn’t have edges on my board. I’d go get a silver marker and paint edges on there so I could get past the lift ops. We also took a lot of prejudice as kids stuff that kids shouldn’t have to put up with. Adults used to spit on me from the chairlift. I skateboarded, too, and would have rocks thrown at me by football players. It was a creative sport so it wasn’t a ‘real’ sport. So to see the snowboard team take about a third of the U.S. medals [in Torino], it’s really bizarre. Now we’re the heroes and when I go places, people know me for doing the sport.

SR: Your Olympic teammate Shaun White joked with Bob Costas that his gold medal might be a ‘chick magnet.’ Has that been your experience?

SW: About an hour after I won the race, I got about 500 emails, about 95 percent female. It was flattering but really, it was more like, “delete, delete, delete.”

SR: Have you had any other unusual opportunities since winning gold?

SW: Disney invited some of the medalists to the theme park. There’s also a White House trip this spring, but I think I’ll be in Costa Rica surfing. Surfing is a huge part of my life. The month of May will to be my gift to myself. I’ll surf every day for the whole month with some friends.

SR: Are you finished competing now?

SW: I’ll go to the remaining World Cups this season, in Lake Placid and Japan. There are four of us who can win the overall title. I didn’t take the early season too seriously I was focused on making the Torino team so now it’s time to buckle down. After that, I’ll probably step back from competition for the next couple of years. I’ll do major events like the X Games and defend my title at the world championships and probably just a few early-season World Cups to keep enough points to stay in there.

SR: Your father, Jim, was a track coach at North Carolina State and once trained Joan Benoit Samuelson, the first woman to win an Olympic marathon, in 1984. Did you know her very well?

SW: My dad recruited Joan in her junior year, but neither of them was big on the south because of the [racial] ignorance that existed at the time. She was only there one year, and our family moved to Maine when I was 18 months old. She was from Maine, too, and she was my babysitter when I was little. I grew up in a house without a TV, but in 1984, my dad bought a color one so we could see the L.A. Olympics. I remember seeing her win.

SR: When’s the last time you talked to her?

SW: She called me during the Grand Prix event in New Jersey, where the Olympic team was announced. She goes, “Seth! This is your babysitter,” and I’m thinking, “What?”

She goes, “It’s Joannie Samuelson. I want you to go over there [to Torino] and make history like I did.” And I did.

SR: Have you heard from her since your gold-medal run?

SW: I didn’t see her in Torino, but she said, “when things die down, maybe this summer, I’d love to talk.” She’s involved in some charities so I might help with that. Also, her son Anders is a snowboarder. I gave him some lessons at a camp in Sugarbush, in the halfpipe and park. He’s maybe 12 or so. He could be good. He’s still got time.