U.S. sweeps halfpipe

SALT LAKE CITY -- In times like this, you wonder where America would be without the Stale Fish. Not to mention the McTwist and Back Side Melon.

The Olympics have gone radical, and America is far richer for it. Thanks to Generation X, the United States on Monday pulled off its first medals sweep in the Winter Games in 46 years.

With aerial tricks such as the Stale Fish and McTwist, Ross Powers, Danny Kass and J.J. Thomas took gold, silver and bronze, respectively in the men's snowboard halfpipe.

Skateboard's misfits have been taken off the streets and dropped onto the slopes, and Citius, Altius, Fortius never will sound the same.

"I've never tried to pick up a girl with a medal before," Kass said on his way to the medals ceremony. Let Canada have curling. Wish the Norwegians the best of luck in biathlon. The United States has learned extreme sports can mean extreme returns.

This is American ingenuity at its finest. If you can't beat the Austrians at their game, then make up your own.

Five of America's six medals in these Games have come in snowboarding and freestyle moguls -- sports that were not Olympic events before the 1990s.

"A lot of mountains used to ban snowboarding, and the skiers looked down on snowboarding," Powers, 22, said. "Snowboarding has grown so much, and so many people are into it now. You see little 4-year-olds and 60-year-old men nowadays.

"It's grown so much, and this should make it grow even more."

It has grown so much, the snowboarders are fending off accusations of selling out. Hardcore fans seem to believe the Olympics are beneath -- or would it be above? -- a true snowboard dude.

"I keep telling them that they haven't gone mainstream," U.S. snowboarding coach Peter Foley said. "Mainstream America has come to them."

For the uninitiated, the halfpipe is a half-cylinder-shaped course. The competitors build up speed on a slope, slide into the course and slide above the walls to perform aerial tricks.

The snowboarders are a hit with the younger crowd, but the mass society still could use some selling.

"Most people probably think we're always partying, but that's not really true," Kass said. "Now motocross? Those guys are out of control. They should never let those guys in the Olympics."

Kass, 19, had joked before the Olympics he would go on a two-year drug binge if he came out of Salt Lake City with a gold medal.

So does a silver mean a one-year binge?

"Nah, I didn't quite make the gold," Kass said. "So I think I'll just mellow out for a while. I've been working pretty hard, so I'm going to go home and hang with my brother and friends."

If they were overwhelmed with having the Olympic medal draped around their necks, none let on. Kass said the Olympics were "10 times" more important than the X Games, but he still wasn't letting the moment go to his head.

"I'm going to try to cry," he said when asked if the medals ceremony would be emotional.

Thomas perked up when he was told the rock band the Foo Fighters would be playing at Temple Square after the medals ceremony.

"Way cool," Thomas said.

Underneath his helmet, while competing, Kass wore headphones and listened to a compilation CD he made a couple of weeks ago with AC/DC, Metallica, Black Sabbath and the Misfits.

"It was my Olympic-pumping-up mini disc. It worked magic," Kass said. "I think I'll make copies of it and sell it."

For Powers, the gold is an upgrade from Nagano, where he won bronze. Kass, who was 15 at the time of those Olympics, was asked if he watched his future teammate on television at the 1998 Games.

"I tried, but I couldn't," Kass said. "Every time I turned on the TV, they had curling on. Too much curling."

Exactly.

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