The U.S. is one of the world's dominant snowboarding nations. But despite that, the home team will not send a full snowboard squad to the Salt Lake City Games. And it's not because the Americans are not talented enough. The reason the U.S. will not send a full team of athletes is that unlike in other winter sports, snowboarding has two elite-level tours. Skiing's international governing body, the FIS, runs one, the World Cup tour.
Competitors get to count their two best point results to earn a quota spot for their countries.
Basically, the U.S. had only one more significant chance to gain more halfpipe spots, at the recent World Cup finals in Finland. It did not happen, though. Therefore, the U.S. must wait to see if the FIS schedules a few extra events in South America during the summer. Right now, despite a deep talent pool, it appears the U.S. will only qualify for a maximum number of spots in women's halfpipe. But so far, only Czeschin has secured a spot for the U.S. because Kass and Powers, the 1998 Olympic bronze medalist, compete mainly on the ISF tour.