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A virtual ride down the Olympic course even Shaun White won’t touch

Snowboarding fans are getting a preview of one of Sochi’s most talked-about courses before the Winter Olympics even begin.

 

Michelle Jaworski

IRL

Posted on Feb 6, 2014   Updated on May 31, 2021, 7:07 pm CDT

Snowboarding fans are getting a preview of one of Sochi’s most talked-about courses before the Winter Olympics even begin.

Russian snowboarder Alexey Sobolev strapped a GoPro camera to his head and took a test run of the course for the slopestyle event, which is making its Olympic debut this year.

Sharing footage from the view of the athletes among their fans is almost becoming standard practice, and Sobolev’s run is no different. He almost makes every jump and turn look easy, even though most of us would probably wipe out and finish the run a lot less gracefully than Sobolev.

But the slopestyle course is not without controversy.

Snowboarder Shaun White announced Wednesday that he wouldn’t compete in the slopestyle event due to the risk of injury after jamming his wrist on a practice run. Other athletes have voiced their concerns for the slopestyle course, and Finnish snowboarder Marika Enne was taken off the course on a stretcher Tuesday after crashing on the final jump.

H/T Digg | Screengrab via Vimeo

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*First Published: Feb 6, 2014, 2:54 pm CST