Jordie Karlinski

Aspen Mountain was one of the final holdouts when it came to welcoming snowboarders to its slopes. Good thing they came to their senses since one of the hottest up-and-comers in the sport lives right in their backyard. Jordie Karlinski grew up honing her skills on other ski resorts in the Aspen area, trying to keep up with her older brother, Teddy, and his friends. That childhood competition with the boys turned her into a fierce and daring snowboard competitor.

Jordie strapped on her first snowboard at the age of 7. By 2005, at the age of 15, she made her first international team, qualifying for the 2005 Junior World Championships. Two years later, she was a medalist at that level, grabbing silver in the Big Air event.

Two snowboard disciplines are competed at the Olympic level – snowboardcross and halfpipe. Jordie is aiming for a spot on both U.S. teams in the 2010 Olympics.

In snowboardcross, a group of racers race down a course that includes banked turns, jumps and other features. It’s this discipline where Jordie’s experience racing against the boys really pays off as she shows no fear in this almost roller derby type event. She took fourth in this event at the 2007 X Games.

Jordie also excels in halfpipe, an event where she can show off her creative side. In this event, riders perform a series of tricks in a snow chute and are judged by criteria such as height, landings, and difficulty. She won the event at the Jackson Hole stop on the 2006 Chevrolet Revolution Tour. While it’s not an Olympic discipline yet, Jordie is also a top competitor in slopestyle, which is similar to halfpipe, but takes place on a longer course in a terrain park where jumps and tricks are performed on and around a series of obstacles. At the 2007 USASA Nationals, she took silver in both the halfpipe and slopestyle events.