The last time we read a letter from Terje Haakonsen it was back in the beginning of 1998 when he announced that he would not be participating in the first Olympic snowboarding halfpipe event in Nagano Japan because the International Olympic Committee organization was corrupt (someone made fun of the letter at the time).
Haakonsen’s criticisms were proven true three years later when it was shown that several IOC board members accepted “gifts” from the Salt Lake City organizing committee for their votes.
Now an older and wiser Haakonsen appears interested in working with the IOC to help young snowboarders get the chance he blew off and compete in the Winter Olympic Games. Broblog posted the entire letter.
Truthfully, we tried reading the letter (written with the Arctic Challenge’s Henning Andersen) and didn’t understand a word of it. If you’re into Olympic organizational politics then dive right it. Maybe it will make sense to you.
[Link: Broblog]
i know, i did not understand any of the politics or the ins and outs. All I did understand is,
1. poor scheduling.
2. Shaun White is even ridiculed by Terje.
3. Olympic politics is pretty heady.
He’s calling for the IOC to embrace dew tour, x games, etc. as progressing the sport and to look at the advancement of the sport not as a cycle (every 4 years…didnt really get his point with this unless he wants the judges to change their criteria for scoring every 4 years to reflect the progression of tricks..)but holistically. That the qualifiers to determine who rides in the olympics (AKA FIS events) are scheduled with the cooperation of other large snowboard tour entities (mtn. dew, x games etc.) so that riders can compete in a year your arena.
Or im mis-reading. I have to say that I somewhat agree, but its a double edged sword no matter how you look at it. Accepting corporate money allows the sport to keep flourishing and progress but at the same time McDonalds is going to use whatever image it can to sell french fries. Craig Kelly said that everyone has to sell out to achieve your dreams (Mike Basich does a pretty good job of not by starting his own company and all that but by that token he’s creating a smaller business with smaller revenue streams than say burton who is much larger and able to better use its capital resources to progress the sports so….) and I think that’s somewhat true. Go compete in the x-games, go play the sponsor game, get your face on a couple billboards, get a fat check then go freeride and become a guide for the rest of your life, snowboarding every day. Option for few but its a good model and people should strive to achieve it in my opinion. Use the system that’s trying to use you, then when youre on top walk out and do what Bryan Iguchi did. Ride pow all day long.
IN the end, screw it, just ride. Stand up for what you think is right and where you want to sport to go. Terje is undoubtedly one of the most inspiring riders out there and one of our sports biggest figureheads. He’s got it right to say that scheduling should be created to allow whats best for the people in the events; without them shit wouldnt be there.
sorry to ramble.
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