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[ Narrator]
Because of it rapid rise in popularity,
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the Olympics soon set it sights
on snowboarding.
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In 1998 snowboarding reluctantly
stepped on to the Olympic stage,
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dividing the tight-knit
snowboarding community.
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[ Rice ] Coming up to the Olympics,
there was all this hype about how Terje
wasn't gonna be there.
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And at that point,
Terje was pretty much considered...
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the best half-pipe rider
and the person to beat.
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And if he wasn't there,
it wasn't a real contest.
And I totally agreed with that.
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I think it's really wrong
and not really good for the sport.
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They're trying to pick countries
that are up against countries.
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It's not so much
what snowboarding's about.
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[ Tina ]
It was important that he was there
to make that decision...
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because there was both sides of it,
and he represented that side of it.
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[Richards ]
As the Olympic team
going into Nagano,
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we had a lot of faith in people
that weren't up to the task...
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of making snowboarding
look really cool to the world.
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The athlete Rebagliati, Ross,
member of the Canadian delegation,
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is disqualified and excluded
from the 18th Olympic Winter Games.
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It was unfortunate,you know,
to have the whole scandal...
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with Ross testing positive
for marijuana.
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They wanted to strip his medal, and then
they finally allowed him to have it...
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Because that wasn't one
of the banned substances.
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So because
that whole thing happened,
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they cut 80% of the coverage
of snowboarding...
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to the American public.
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[Richards ] If anything,
he should get a bonus medal...
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for actually being able to get
a gold medal while stoned.
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[Mike ] We just felt like
they needed us to get over with,
get on the plane and get home.
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It sucked.
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I'd say that's a good kick-off
for the Olympics for snowboarding.
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I wouldn't choose
to have it any otherway.
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[Narrator]
Four years later
the Salt Lake City games...
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would show snowboarding
in a much different light...
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and forever change the mainstream's
perception of the sport.