Under dark, wet snowfall deep in Washington State's North Cascades, Terje Haakonsen charges his snowboard across the finish line to victory at the Mount Baker Banked Slalom. Through the evergreen mists, he carves to a stop past a small group of racers, officials and assorted stragglers. Within inner circles, Haakonsen, 23, is considered the Michael Jordan of snowboarding, and Mount Baker possibly the sport's most respected event. But when Haakonsen finishes, there are no corporate sponsorships, no teams, no coaches, no flags, no network TV. A few ragged kids in wet gear cheer the best rider in the world as he slips off, back to the chair lift. The Norwegian packs up his third Mount Baker trophy (a golden roll of duct tape) and prepares to head up to Vancouver, B.C., to consult on a snowboard video game. And then probably home to Oslo, or Jackson Hole, Wyo., or maybe back to Mount Baker. But not to Japan and the first snowboarding events in Olympic history. Haakonsen is boycotting Nagano.
The would-be Olympians are a few hundred miles south, in the volcanoes of central Oregon, where the second of three qualifying events is taking place. The Mount Bachelor ski area is packed with truckloads of sound equipment, brimming with $10,000 purses and populated by whole contingents of coaches. For the halfpipe, snowboarding's freestyle discipline and Haakonsen's main event, Todd Richards launches and spins his way past fellow American Ross Powers toward a victory. Richards, who defeated Haakonsen at last year's U.S. Open in Stratton, Vt., was expected to challenge Haakonsen for the gold in Nagano. Their rivalry will remain non-Olympian and will certainly not pit the U.S. against Norway.
In fact, Haakonsen cites nationalism as a reason for giving the Olympics the same salute he has thrown journalists, contest officials and all who encroach on snowboarding's outsider ethos. The young antihero dislikes the formatted judging system and just about everything ordained by the Olympics and is suspicious of its structure and its ability to deal with his evolving sport. Mount Baker, with its loose nature, he says, "is a way more organized and professional contest."
Haakonsen also does not like the way the Olympic snowboarders are being turned into uniform-wearing team members. Like tennis and golf, snowboarding has functioned with independently contracted athletes enjoying, in some cases, six-figure contracts. At competitions, snowboarders are usually adorned with various sponsors' logos. Within the Olympic system, competitors must wear officially sanctioned uniforms provided by a contracted supplier. Mark Fawcett, Canada's dominant giant-slalom racer, who draws a good portion of his income from Fila, must suspend that contract to advertise Nike, official sponsor of the Canadian team. At one point, Fawcett was so frustrated by the rule that he tried to join the New Zealand team. In the end, he decided to go Canadian anyway.