In Torino, Vermont native Hannah Teter won gold in women's halfpipe despite a painful knee injury. Since claiming the Olympic title, she has taken on a unique charitable endeavor, donating all of her snowboarding prize money to benefit an impoverished village in Kenya.
What are your memories of Kelly Clark's last run in Torino?
She was just flying so high and doing so well. And yeah, I would have definitely been a happy second-placer if she had landed [the frontside 900 she attempted]. So, she's just always pushing the envelope and really taking women's snowboarding to the height of another realm.
Do you remember watching her win gold in 2002?
Yeah, I was there. I was the forerunner. I was a little girl doing the pre-Olympic forerunning. I always remember having so much passion for the sport watching her throw down that run. It's like: Oh, my God! It was just so beautiful. It's such an art, such a unique way to express a sport is to like carve through the snow and do all these crazy ninja tricks.
Can you talk a little bit about the U.S. snowboarding team and other halfpipe riders and the kind of relationship you all have?
Well, I basically live with the other girls when we're on tour, so they feel like family. You know, I didn't have any sisters growing up. I only had four older brothers. So I feel close with a lot of the girls, which is really nice because to be friends with your biggest competitors is kind of a unique opportunity, because most people are like: "Don't you hate your competitors?" And I'm just like: I wouldn't be doing this sport if we didn't get along. Like I just wouldn't be interested in competition if it wasn't a friendly aspect. So, I'm just so stoked that snowboarding has that and that the girls are also into that whole view of slapping each other high five and wishing each other luck.
What was it like growing up with four brothers?
Growing up with four brothers - definitely busy because there was only one bathroom in the house. So, it was great. But I was just always a tag-along and always wanted to be like a boy when I was growing up, wearing their clothes and their T-shirts and always: Wait up for me, guys! I want to come along! And always do the soccer and the basketball, and the baseball. So that was so cool because they would do it. And it was just - not many people have that role model experience where their family members and their loved ones are super supportive of them and what they do. And so, I just - I felt hooked-up to have such a cool family.
How did your charity, Hannah's Gold, come about?
I had a lot of down times. I had three knee surgeries a couple of years ago, and started being all bummed and like: Oh, this sucks, down-time injury, blah. I was just meditating and kind of seeing what was next. Like if I wasn't going to be snowboarding, what would I be doing? And I knew that I still wanted to be helping out in the world some way doing something more. So I had that idea of like: Okay, if I do get back to competition, I want to do something awesome, that nobody's done before, or at least nobody's done to the fullest extent. And then the idea came, like: Donate all your prize money. And I was just like: Yeah, sure! It was just kind of one of those things that came in. You don't really know where it comes from. And it's not about just reaching out and helping people. It's trying to get a younger generation involved and thinking outside the box and knowing that other people do struggle way harder than we struggle here.
Compiled by Matt Stroup, NBCOlympics.com
