Snowboarding-wise, the ’98 Nagano Games and 2002’s Salt Lake Games were polar opposites. We went from mocked and misunderstood to celebrated with stadium seating. And it’s in this 4-year window of history that we first earned our identity as one of the most widely watched Olympic sports of all time. 

In this 2-part series, Tricia and Jen go deep on the hype, the hope and the heartbreak of snowboarding’s first 2 Olympic appearances. Ross Powers, the true Boss of snowboarding and a medal holder in both events (famously leading the U.S. podium sweep in Salt Lake), taps in as our live human expert. 

Part 2 of the series covers what went down on event day in both Nagano and Salt Lake—from avalanche warnings on course to the backside air seen round the world, from the medals won to ones lost—and how snowboarding was wildly transformed.