Snowboarding really caught the attention of the world in Nagano, Japan in1998 when snowboarding became an Olympic event. The events are divided into two styles, freestyle and alpine. The first two Olympic snowboarding events were the half pipe and the giant slalom. The very first medal for snowboarding was won by Ross Rebagliati of Canada in the giant slalom. Since then, other snowboarding events have been added to the games and the original events have been changed slightly. The giant slalom is now the parallel giant slalom and the half pipe is now the superpipe.
An exciting new Olympic snowboarding event added in 2006 in Torino, Italy is the snowboard cross competition. In this event, four snowboarders race through gates and over jumps to the finish line. New elements of excitement and danger from full body contact add to this event.
Olympic snowboarding is now a very popular event in the games after just a few short years. The competitors have almost a cult following. This "once on the side" sport is now mainstream.
