Snowboarder JJ Thomas has golden memories of the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City.
The last man to qualify for the U.S. team that year, the Golden, Colorado, native won a bronze medal in the halfpipe in a stunning American sweep of the podium. Ross Powers took gold and 19-year-old Danny Kass won silver, marking the first time Team USA went 1-2-3 in any Winter Games event since men’s figure skating in 1956.
And U.S. winter sports athletes haven’t duplicated the feat since that magical year at Park City Mountain Resort.
“It was just a perfect sunny day, a perfect venue. Little did we know at the time that that would probably go down to be the best halfpipe venue to happen in snowboarding history. To date, there hasn’t been another that good that I’ve been to or heard about,” Thomas told the Deseret News in an interview.
With 20,000 wildly excited spectators at the base of the mountain, the atmosphere rivaled a college or pro football game.
“It just had the energy I haven’t felt at an event since,” he said.