maddie bowman

South Lake Tahoe's Maddie Bowman won gold today in Sochi! She went into the Olympic Freeskiing Halfpipe finals sitting comfortably in third, led all women with an 89 in the finals. Marie Martinod of France won silver and Ayana Onozuka of Japan won the bronze.

The South Tahoe High graduate, who won the last two XGames in the event, is competing in her first Olympics at age 20. She is now the first woman to ever win a gold medal in the inaugural Olympic Ski Halfpipe.

The USA has a record 94 athletes headed to Sochi, Russia for the 2014 Olympic games next week.

Here is a list of the teams (Lake Tahoe, Reno and Truckee athletes in bold):

2014 OLYMPIC SNOWBOARDING HALFPIPE AND SLOPESTYLE NOMINATIONS

Men’s Alpine Snowboarding
Justin Reiter, Steamboat Springs, CO (2/2/1981)

Men’s Halfpipe
Greg Bretz, Mammoth Lakes, CA (12/19/1990) *
Danny Davis, Truckee, CA (6/22/1988)
Taylor Gold, Steamboat Springs, CO (11/17/1993)
Shaun White, Carlsbad, CA (9/3/1986) *

Women’s Halfpipe

USSA - Five additional freeskiing athletes were nominated by the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association to be a part of the Olympic debut of halfpipe and slopestyle skiing. In addition, skicross athlete John Teller (Mammoth Lakes, CA) was nominated to the team, following his win in the final Olympic qualifying World Cup last week. With the confirmation of quotas within freestyle skiing, the USSA added two skiers in halfpipe and three in slopestyle to round out the full team.

Men’s Skicross
John Teller, Mammoth Lakes, CA (3/9/1983)

Jamie Anderson of South Lake Tahoe clinched the first spot on the U.S. Olympic slopestyle snowboarding team with her victory Thursday at the Sprint U.S. Grand Prix at Mammoth Mountain. Ryan Stassel (Anchorage) took the victory for the men, while favorite Shaun White (Carlsbad, CA) fell hard during his first run and couldn’t put together a complete second run. It was the third Olympic qualifier of five, and the fourth qualifier commenced Thursday at 4:30 p.m..

Anderson's winning run was a 50-50, back lip, tail 270 out, frontside 360 shifty, backside 540 and cab 720.

Sierra-at-Tahoe Resort announced that South Lake Tahoe local and professional skier Kyle Smaine will join the Sierra Resort™ Pro Team this season. Smaine was born and raised in South Lake Tahoe and learned to ski at Sierra Resort.

“I’m excited to join the Sierra-at-Tahoe family. I love the mountain. It’s where I learned to ski with my family. The laid-back vibe, and focus on terrain parks have kept my friends and I coming back year after year. It is a natural fit, and I’m excited to shred at Sierra-at-Tahoe this season,” said Smaine.

That fireball seen winging across the Russian skies may just be a winter athlete from South Lake Tahoe. Halfway across the world, hometown favorites Maddie Bowman, Kyle Smaine and Whitney Gardne...

The South Shore ladies showed how it's done in the Sierra last weekend under the X Games' spotlight. Sierra-at-Tahoe riders Maddie Bowman and Jamie Anderson both took good at the at X Games Aspe...

When it comes to best in the U.S., rest assured the South Shore ladies are representing.South Tahoe's Elena Hight, Hannah Teter and Maddie Bowman all snagged spots on the 2013 U.S. ski and snowb...

The Winter X Games in Aspen, Colo., had the trademark of Sierra-at-Tahoe stamped on it this weekend in the form of medals won. In separate events, Jamie Anderson took home a gold, Maddie Bowman a silver and Hannah Teeter, a bronze. Here's the release provided by Sierra Resort:

This has been a whirlwind of a week for South Tahoe's Maddie Bowman. The superpipe freeskier lost a role model in Sara Burke who passed away from injuries while practicing the very sport Bowman com...