Stars, Stripes, and Shred: The Best American Snowboarders

The United States didn't just popularize snowboarding, it invented the culture, built the industry, and dominated the competitive scene for decades. From the pioneers who fought to get snowboarding accepted on ski mountains to the Olympic champions who turned it into a global spectacle, American riders have been at the heart of the sport's evolution. Here are the legends and rising stars who define American snowboarding.

The Founding Fathers

• Jake Burton Carpenter: You can't talk about American snowboarding without starting here. Burton didn't invent snowboarding, but he's the person most responsible for turning it into a real sport. Moving to Vermont in the 1970s, he began refining and manufacturing snowboards out of a barn, eventually building Burton Snowboards into the most iconic brand in the sport. He lobbied tirelessly to get snowboarders access to ski resorts and helped shape the competition and culture of modern snowboarding. He passed away in 2019, but his legacy is visible every time someone straps in — his company's name was on the bottom of more than half the boards used in the 2026 Olympic big air final.

• Craig Kelly: Widely regarded as one of the two greatest snowboarders of all time (alongside Terje Haakonsen), Kelly was the sport's first true superstar. He won multiple world championships across halfpipe, slalom, and overall disciplines in the late '80s and early '90s, dominating the contest scene like no one before him. Then he did something extraordinary — he walked away from lucrative sponsorship deals to dedicate himself entirely to backcountry freeriding, essentially inventing the pro freeride career path. His silky-smooth video parts in big mountain terrain remain benchmarks. Tragically, Kelly was killed in an avalanche in British Columbia in 2003, but his influence on both competitive and backcountry snowboarding is immeasurable.

The Halfpipe Royalty

• Shaun White: The most famous snowboarder in history and the sport's greatest competitive ambassador. "The Flying Tomato" is a five-time Olympian, three-time Olympic halfpipe gold medalist (2006, 2010, 2018), and holds the record for the most X Games gold medals by a snowboarder (13 golds across superpipe and slopestyle). He was the first person to score a perfect 100 in X Games superpipe history and debuted the legendary Double McTwist 1260 at the 2010 Olympics. Born with a congenital heart defect requiring two surgeries before age one, White's career arc — from teenage prodigy to global icon — did more to bring snowboarding to mainstream audiences than any other single figure. He retired after the 2022 Beijing Olympics and has since founded The Snow League, a new head-to-head halfpipe competition format.

• Kelly Clark: An all-time halfpipe great and one of only four snowboarders (male or female) to win three Olympic medals. Clark won gold at Salt Lake City 2002 — becoming the first American to win Olympic gold in snowboarding — and added bronzes in 2010 and 2014. She accumulated over a dozen X Games medals, seven US Open titles, and five World Snowboard Tour wins across a career spanning nearly two decades. Her powerful, technical style set the standard for women's halfpipe riding.

• Hannah Teter: A Vermont native who won Olympic halfpipe gold at the 2006 Turin Games and silver in 2010 in Vancouver. She also earned X Games gold in 2003 and six World Cup victories. Beyond competition, Teter founded the charity Hannah's Gold, which supports communities in Kenya, and has been a prominent humanitarian voice in the sport.

• Chloe Kim: The dominant force in modern women's halfpipe snowboarding. Kim became the youngest woman to win Olympic halfpipe gold at the 2018 PyeongChang Games at age 17, then became the first woman to win back-to-back halfpipe golds in Beijing 2022. She's an eight-time X Games gold medalist — the most of any woman in the superpipe — and was the first woman to land back-to-back 1080s in competition. In 2024 she became the first woman to land a 1260, and in January 2025 she landed the first-ever cab double cork 1080 in a halfpipe competition. She holds the distinction of being the first snowboarder to win all four major titles simultaneously: Olympics, World Championships, X Games, and Youth Olympics. At the 2026 Milano Cortina Games, she took silver in the halfpipe, narrowly missing a three-peat.

• Danny Kass: A two-time Olympic halfpipe silver medalist (2002, 2006) who brought a rawer, more counter-cultural energy to pipe riding than his rival Shaun White. Kass won four US Open Championships and seven X Games medals. He also co-founded Grenade Gloves, a snowboarding gear company, blending his competitive success with entrepreneurial spirit.

• Ross Powers: Part of the historic American podium sweep in halfpipe at the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics, where he won gold alongside silver medalist Danny Kass and bronze medalist Jarret Thomas. Powers also won X Games and US Open titles, and his Olympic moment remains one of the most iconic in American snowboarding history.

The Slopestyle & Big Air Stars

• Jamie Anderson: The queen of slopestyle and the most decorated female Olympic snowboarder in terms of medals. The South Lake Tahoe native won back-to-back Olympic slopestyle golds at Sochi 2014 and PyeongChang 2018, and holds more X Games medals than any other female snowboarder. Her riding is defined by smooth, effortless style — she links together technical tricks with grace and fluidity that make the difficult look easy. She's also known for her eco-consciousness and dedication to sustainable living.

• Red Gerard: A slopestyle and big air competitor who became the youngest Olympic snowboarding gold medalist in history when he won slopestyle at PyeongChang 2018 at just 17. The Ohio native turned Colorado local won with a dramatic final-run comeback from 11th place and became an instant folk hero — famous for sleeping through his alarm the morning of his win after binge-watching Brooklyn Nine-Nine. He won back-to-back X Games slopestyle golds in 2024 and 2025 and is competing at Milano Cortina 2026 in his third Olympics, chasing a second gold in slopestyle.

• Hailey Langland: A two-time Olympian who competes in slopestyle and big air. Langland landed the first-ever double cork 1080 by a female in a slopestyle competition, a milestone that helped raise the technical bar for the entire women's discipline. She's a consistent presence at the top of international competitions and is dating fellow Olympian Red Gerard — the pair serve as one of snowboarding's power couples.

• Sage Kotsenburg: Won the first-ever Olympic slopestyle gold medal when the event debuted at the 2014 Sochi Games, pulling off a trick he'd never tried in competition — a 1620 Holy Crail — to stun the field. The Idaho native's laid-back personality and creative approach to riding made him a fan favorite. He later shifted focus toward backcountry filmmaking, collaborating with Red Gerard and Ben Ferguson on projects like the film Joy.

• Ollie Martin: The 17-year-old slopestyle and big air phenom making his Olympic debut at Milano Cortina 2026. Martin is the youngest rider to ever land a 2160 and the only rider to land both a frontside and a backside 2160. He already has a World Cup slopestyle victory and two World Championship bronze medals to his name. At the 2026 Olympic big air final, he finished an impressive fourth — competing with a broken arm — narrowly missing the podium. He is widely regarded as the future of American freestyle snowboarding.

The Snowboard Cross Queen

• Lindsey Jacobellis: The most decorated snowboard cross athlete of all time, male or female. The Connecticut native is a five-time Olympian, two-time Olympic gold medalist (individual and mixed team at Beijing 2022), six-time World Champion, and ten-time X Games gold medalist. Her story is one of legendary perseverance — after a famous near-miss at the 2006 Turin Games where a celebratory method grab near the finish line cost her the gold, she endured 16 years and three more Olympic disappointments before finally winning gold in Beijing at age 36, becoming the oldest American woman to win a Winter Olympic medal. She retired from Olympic competition in 2025 after the birth of her first child.

The Backcountry & Film Icons

• Travis Rice: The Jackson Hole, Wyoming native who redefined what was possible in big mountain freestyle riding. Named the best contemporary snowboarder in the world by Red Bull in 2013, Rice is known for landing the first-ever double cork 1260 and for launching a backside rodeo across a 117-foot gap. But his greatest legacy may be his films — That's It, That's All (2008) and The Art of Flight (2011) are widely considered two of the greatest snowboarding films ever made. He also created Natural Selection, a backcountry freestyle competition held in natural terrain, which has become one of the most respected events in the sport.

• Jeremy Jones: One of the greatest big mountain riders in history. The Cape Cod native turned Truckee, California resident has spent decades pushing the limits of what's rideable in the backcountry, earning multiple Rider of the Year awards. His Deeper, Further, Higher film trilogy documented first descents of some of the most remote and dangerous peaks on Earth. He's also the founder of Protect Our Winters, a climate advocacy nonprofit that has become one of the most influential environmental organizations in outdoor sports.

The Pioneers Who Built the Culture

• Shannon Dunn-Downing: A true halfpipe pioneer and the first woman to have a pro model snowboard (with Sims, in 1994). She was the first woman to land a frontside 720, McTwist, and frontside rodeo 720 in competition, pushing the progression of women's riding and co-founding Boarding for Breast Cancer alongside Tina Basich.

• Tina Basich: A snowboarding OG and member of the original Sims team who dominated halfpipe competitions through the late '80s and '90s. Beyond her stylish riding, she co-founded Boarding for Breast Cancer (B4BC), a nonprofit that has raised millions for breast cancer prevention and awareness among young people.

• Tara Dakides: Took women's slopestyle and big air riding to a new level in the late 1990s and early 2000s. She won multiple X Games gold medals in both slopestyle and big air and was one of the most visible female action sports athletes of her era, appearing on magazine covers and helping to bring mainstream attention to women's freestyle snowboarding.

The Next Generation

• Dusty Henricksen: A rising slopestyle talent who won X Games slopestyle gold in 2021 at age 18. Known for his creative trick selection and smooth style, Henricksen represents the next wave of American freestyle talent and is part of the U.S. Olympic pipeline.

• Jake Canter: The Aspen local who clinched his spot on the 2026 U.S. Olympic team in slopestyle and big air with a World Cup victory in his hometown. Canter has steadily risen through the ranks and is part of a deep American squad competing at Milano Cortina.

• Jess Perlmutter: A 15-year-old street and rail prodigy from Vermont who burst onto the scene at the 2024 Uninvited Invitational and then won the overall at Red Bull Heavy Metal Boston in 2025 in front of 20,000 people. Her deep bag of technical tricks — honed through years of skateboarding — and fearless riding mark her as one of the most exciting young talents in the sport.

The American Legacy: The United States has won more Olympic snowboarding medals than any other country, and American riders have shaped every era of the sport — from Jake Burton building boards in a Vermont barn, to Craig Kelly pioneering the backcountry, to Shaun White becoming a global icon, to Chloe Kim redefining what's possible in the halfpipe. Even as Japan has surged to the forefront of competitive freestyle snowboarding, the depth and diversity of American talent — spanning halfpipe, slopestyle, big air, snowboard cross, backcountry, and street — ensures that the Stars and Stripes will remain a dominant force on the mountain for generations to come.