TORINO: Snowboard: Men's HP preview: Ready for the 1260?

TORINO: Snowboard: Men’s HP preview: Ready for the 1260?{mosimage}Sunday’s contenders in the men’s Olympic halfpipe are proving evolution is no theory 180 degrees at a time.

Training runs at the Olympic pipe in the otherwise quite Italian border town of Bardonecchia have been electrified by talk that one of the men may be able to pull a trick never before performed in an Olympic Winter Games and rarely performed in competitions of any kind — the frontside 1260.

Do the math: 3 and one-half rotations.

Just two weeks ago, as Shaun White, 19, prepared to take X Games halfpipe gold, conventional wisdom was the style, amplitude and combinations of ‘the 10’ (1080, three rotations) as demonstrated at Winter X would be the keys to Olympic Gold. But on the eve of the third-ever Olympic halfpipe, the sport had already taken a step forward with three top riders landing the frontside 1260.

Italy’s Giacomo Kratter unleashed the beast, landing the frontside 1260 on the first day of training. The next day in training Fin Antti Autti and Frenchman Mathieu Crepel dropped the 1260 bomb.

White, 19, who has been dubbed the Flying Tomato by the media for his flowing red locks, won all five Olympic qualifying events and is the hands-down favorite for Olympic gold. His winning X Games run included a big backside air, back-to-back 900s (a frontside 900 into a backside 900), back-to-back 1080s (frontside 1090 and a switch frontside 1080) and was topped off with a backside 1080. Word on the cobblestone streets of Bardonecchia is that he has been working on topping off his Olympic run with a backside 1080 an incredibly difficult trick. But it seems unlikely he’ll throw a 1260 in Torino.

So will the 1260 make marinara of the ‘Il Pomodoro Volante?’

White is mum on the matter, but France’s Gary Zebrowski things the new trick is nifty.

‘I believe the 1260 is the one’ he sad on Friday. ‘I will do it like Mathieu [ Crepel], [Giacomo] Kratter and Antti [Autti]’ he said.

Who? What?

Zebrowski doesn’t know what he’s talking about, according to Sunday’s favorites in the pipe.

America’s Danny Kass, 22, the 2002 Olympic Silver medalist, dismissed the 1260 as showmanship.

‘It’s a great trick if people can land it smooth and clean, but you’ve got to have some style. It’s not figure skating.’

His teammate Andy Finch, 24, thinks less of it.

‘Nah, screw that’ he said. ‘Just go big.’

Germany’s Xaver Hoffman expanded: ‘On the [frontside 1260] I don’t think you can show style. You huck yourself into it and wait until you detonate. This year is going to be the year of the 1080. I’ll try to find the path between quick spinning and style.’

Indeed, grasshopper, style and amplitude are crucial components of the halfpipe, a judged subjective sport. Boarders used to be called knuckle draggers, and at Nagano in 1998 a New York Times story referred to snowboarders as snow monkeys (subscription required). But tomorrow a slight drag of the hand could be the difference between gold and nothing. And hypers of the 1260 may forget that back-to-back 1080s is also a never-ever in the Olympic Games. Last estimates were that 12 riders out of the 115 competing have the back-to-back 10 all the Yanks except Finch.

Yes, the Americans are still the favorite in the sport they invented and a repeat podium sweep is highly probable. The one hitch in their giddy-up may be Autti, 20, who took X Games gold in 2004 with stylin’ back-to-back 10s. At this year’s X Games he had one of the biggest 1080s of the night early on in what looked like a medal-worthy first run. But he dragged his hand mid-pipe, losing his speed and ended up in sixth. The Fin is frustrated and may take it out in the air; if Autti lands the 1260 with style and amplitude and adds multiple 10s he may take it all.

While it has yet to be seen if the 1260 will turn Sunday’s event into a rinse cycle, it still represents a giant leap forward for snowboarding.

Consider that the sport has changed so much in recent years that America’s Ross Powers winning run in Salt Lake not to mention his bronze run in Nagano wouldn’t even get him into the finals today. At 27, Powers just missed qualifying for his third Olympics by one spot to riders ages 18, 19, 22 and a 24 who grew up emulating his style and air.

Powers is able to embraces the new guard, though. After all, he was a critical component of snowboarding’s evolution into the upright mainstream.

“There weren’t even halfpipes at the mountains and the mountains didn’t do much for snowboarders,” the Vermonter told the Rutland Herlald’s Betsy Shaw. “Today kids have riders to look up to, videos to study, snowboard parks to ride and coaches.’

Olympic snowboarding the next generation starts Sunday with qualifying rounds at 10 a.m. Tornio time and Finals at 2 p.m. Click HERE for a downloadable PDF with the complete NBC Olympic Television schedule and don’t miss a moment of what promises to be a continually evolving halfpipe competition.