DENVER (AP) \u2014 What was perhaps Kelly Clark\u2019s most memorable trip down a halfpipe had nothing to do with winning.<\/p>\n
It was the Winter X Games in 2011. Clark had already secured the title. With one lap left \u2014 a victory lap, as they call it in snowboarding \u2014 she decided to try something no woman had ever done. She became the first to land a 1080 \u2014 that\u2019s twisting three revolutions above the halfpipe \u2014 in competition.<\/p>\n
The move summed up the essence of what the greats do for snowboarding. As much as winning, they are about pushing the sport to new levels. And often their biggest competition is the person looking back at them in the mirror.<\/p>\n
At peace with her role in cementing that mindset into snowboarding,\u00a0the five-time Olympian<\/a>\u00a0, who dominated her sport while ushering in the Olympic era,\u00a0has decided to retire<\/a>\u00a0.<\/p>\n \u201cAt some times in my career, days that might not have included my best snowboarding led to some of my greatest victories,\u201d the 35-year-old Clark told The Associated Press. \u201cThis sport has always been about more than just winning and losing.\u201d<\/p>\n But there\u2019s been plenty of winning along the way: A gold medal in her Olympic debut. Two bronze. Five X Games titles. Nine more at the U.S. Open. A total of 78 victories and 137 trips onto the podium spanning a career that began 20 years ago, back when the halfpipes were handmade and only about half the size of the 22-foot behemoths that challenge the riders in today\u2019s pro game.<\/p>\n In 2001, Clark was a fresh-faced teenager from Vermont whose parents had indulged her dream \u2014 maybe a fantasy \u2014 to shred down halfpipes with the hopes of making it big someday. She had no real expectations, and the thought of making the Olympics the next year seemed far-flung.<\/p>\n Over the span of a few weeks, that all changed. Clark figured out the McTwist \u2014 an avant-garde trick of that era that involves 1 \u00bd spins while holding the edge of the board with one hand \u2014 and started winning Olympic qualifiers. In February 2002, she became the\u00a0first American to win an Olympic snowboarding gold medal.<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cThe ultimate peak at the ultimate time,\u201d she called it.<\/p>\n But it didn\u2019t necessarily lead to happiness. In the aftermath, Clark became consumed in a world of too much pressure, too many commitments, not enough fun. In an interview last winter, her coach, Rick Bower, recalled that he \u201ckept wondering, does she want to keep doing this?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019re young, you win gold, you think life is going to be easy and you\u2019re all set, and it wasn\u2019t,\u201d said Burton CEO Donna Carpenter, the wife of the company\u2019s founder, Jake Burton. \u201cThat\u2019s when she realized it wasn\u2019t about winning but more about finding her own measure of success and progressing the sport.\u201d<\/p>\n Clark\u2019s bronze medals in 2010 in Vancouver, then again four years later in Sochi, both came after hard falls that made her question whether she could do it. Last year, she finished fourth in Pyeongchang, but even making it to South Korea was a minor miracle given the brutal crash she endured weeks earlier at the X Games in Aspen.<\/p>\n Reflecting last year on some of those mishaps, she said \u201csometimes you value things based on what they cost you.\u201d<\/p>\n Though she\u2019s saying goodbye to competition, Clark will remain involved in the sport, mainly through Burton, the snowboard maker that has backed her career through thick and thin. She\u2019s designed an environmentally friendly snowboard for women called The Rise that will go into limited production.<\/p>\nRecommended Stories For You<\/h2>\n<\/p><\/div>\n