Gretchen Bleiler

Gretchen Bleiler
Personal information
Birth name Gretchen Elisabeth Bleiler[1]
Born (1981-04-10) April 10, 1981
Toledo, Ohio, U.S.
Height 5 ft 5 in (1.65 m)
Weight 126 lb (57 kg)
Sport
Country  United States
Sport Snowboarding
Medal record
Olympic Games
2006 Turin Halfpipe
Winter Dew Tour
2009 Mt. Snow Superpipe
2008 Breckenridge Superpipe
Winter X Games
2003 Aspen Superpipe
2005 Aspen Superpipe
2008 Aspen Superpipe
2010 Aspen Superpipe
2007 Aspen Superpipe
New Zealand Winter Games
2013 Cardrona Halfpipe

Gretchen Elisabeth Bleiler (born April 10, 1981 in Toledo, Ohio) is an American professional halfpipe snowboarder.

Career

Bleiler aspired to compete in the Winter X Games from a very young age, and found her passion in snowboarding at age 11 (1992).[2] She has been riding ever since and became professional in 1996. Among her accomplishments, she jump-started the invert revolution for female riders as the first to land a Crippler 540 in competition, and won more halfpipe competitions in 2003, 2005 and 2006 than any other female snowboarder.[3] In the pre-Olympic season she won four of the five US Olympic halfpipe qualifiers and is also a four-time X Games gold medalist, most recently winning the superpipe at Winter X Games XIV.[3]

In 2003, she was a U.S. snowboard Grand Prix champion, a U.S. Open of snowboarding champion, and a Triple Crown of Snowboarding champion.[2][4][5]

She posed for the February 2004 issue of FHM, along with fellow snowboarder Tara Dakides and sportscaster Jamie Little.[6]

Bleiler, who missed qualifying for the 2002 Winter Olympics due to a tiebreaker, won a silver medal in the women's halfpipe at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy.[7]

Starting in 2007, Bleiler expanded her career into snowboard and outerwear design, through Oakley and K2 Snowboarding, designing her own signature outerwear line for Oakley, and participating in the K2 Alliance, which develops and tests women's products, as well as working on the graphics for several K2 Boards. In 2008, she helped to create a new all-female invitational superpipe competition at Snowmass called the Snow Angels Invitational.[8]

While competing in the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics, many considered Bleiler a gold medal favorite. However, she fell on both of her final runs, and took 11th place.

During the summer, Gretchen Bleiler gives back to snowboarding's youth at High Cascade Snowboard Camp. In 2008, 2010 and 2014 she has been awarded a Signature Session at High Cascade[9] where she will coach and mentor young kids.

Bleiler announced her retirement in January 2014 after being injured in a 2012 training accident and failing to make the 2014 Winter Olympics team.[10]

Career highlights

Awards

Quotes

Personal life

Bleiler enjoys surfing, mountain biking, interior design and fashion.[12] She is also active in several environmental organizations, including the Aspen Snomass Save Snow campaign, and stopglobalwarming.org.[8]

She lives in Aspen, Colorado and is married to Chris Hotell.[13]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Bleiler-Hotell engagement". The Aspen Times.
  2. 1 2 whatever it takes to bring home something shiny, 24hourfitness.com
  3. 1 2 Gretchen Bleiler, aspensnowmass.com
  4. ↑ 2003 US Open Halfpipe Finals, expn.go.com
  5. ↑ Vans Triple Crown of snowboarding, expn.go.com
  6. ↑ FHM Cover Girls Bleiler and Dakides, transworldsnowboarding.com
  7. ↑ Silver medal for the American Gretchen Bleiler, oakleybuzz.com
  8. 1 2 Gretchen Bleiler Interview, shredbetties.com
  9. ↑ Signature Sessions, 2014 High Cascade Snowboard Camp
  10. ↑ Gretchen Bleiler to retire from competition
  11. ↑ "Secrets to Long Haul Creativity". Singularity HUB.
  12. ↑ She's got the cake, scholastic.com
  13. ↑ Profile, nbcolympics.com

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 8/12/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.