And now it's happening. The world is watching and the language is getting out. Soon it won't be a secret, won't be pure. The snowboarders flaunting their skill and youth and style and language on the slope north of Nagano are caught in this quandary between keeping the secret and shouting to the world. They know the value of gold and silver and bronze.
Top riders can make six figures, easy.
That's what snowboarding needs, the freedom for everybody to express their style. But that freedom can be threatened by the federation that rules the sport in the Olympics. The old fogies of the International Ski Federation, who pushed aside the hip dudes of the International Snowboard Federation for control. The snowboarders didn't beg to be here the way curlers did. We just fell into it.