The current freestyle ski halfpipe world champion, Mike Riddle from Squamish, says that winning the first ever Olympic gold medal in the sport "would be the ultimate, a dream come true." His field involves scoring points by executing high-altitude tricks while sliding off 22-foot high walls on an icy halfpipe.

The sport was only recently approved by the 2014 Sochi Olympic committee. Riddle explains that "we've all been pushing for it four years, if not longer, doing everything we could to get it into the Olympics," adding that "everything sounded so good for 2014, but then it got delayed in the fall and I didn't want to get my hopes up."

Riddle explains further that "I didn't want to jump ahead and then maybe get disappointed. This is a huge weight off my mind." The Sochi Olympic executive board met in London and also approved ski jumping for women as well as a biathlon mixed relay event and team events for both figure skating and luge.

Source: Vancouver Sun