Olympics-Snowboarding-Slopestyle crashes in as first medal event

By Philip O'Connor ROSA KHUTOR, Russia, Feb 7 (Reuters) - The young discipline of snowboard slopestyle crashes into the Olympics in typically brash style on Saturday as the first medals of the Sochi Games will be awarded in the event making its Games debut. However, the biggest name in extreme sports will not be at the centre of things after American Shaun White withdrew claiming the course was dangerous, preferring to save himself for the halfpipe where he is biding for a third gold. Instead, Canada's Maxence Parrot, who taunted White via social media for his decision to withdraw, is favourite to take slopestyle gold. It was perhaps fitting that the debut event would get the Games underway even before the opening ceremony - with its roots in skateboarding, slopestyle snowboarding is all about doing the unexpected with style. Up in the Caucasus mountains, snowboarding started the 2014 proceedings on Thursday morning, when Britain's Billy Morgan took off in the first slopestyle qualifying heat. The drama continued into the afternoon the new medal sport served up some thrilling tricks and high-speed crashes as competitors vied for a place in the weekend's finals. Perhaps unusually for elite athletes, many expressed a desire simply to do the very best they could, giving the impression that a "sick" trick was worth almost as much as a place on the podium. Snowboarders will compete for medals across five disciplines for men and women, making 10 events in all, and the sport will be on display throughout the Games. The biggest focus will fall on the men's halfpipe with White odds-on for the hat-trick. The women's halfpipe is another hornet's nest. Australia's reigning Olympic champion Torah Bright is one of her country's biggest hopes for the Sochi games, and a monumental battle for gold with America's Kelly Clark awaits. While slopestyle and halfpipe demand a high level of technical skill, the more race-oriented disciplines of snowboard cross, parallel slalom and parallel giant slalom crave speed and strength as well. Snowboard cross made its Olympic debut in 2006, and with groups of four riders racing one another to the bottom of the hill its combination of spectacular jumps and high-speed wipeouts make for exciting action. Australia's two-times world champion in snowboard cross Alex Pullin will be hoping to add an Olympic medal to his collection, as will American Nate Holland, who came an agonising fourth at the Vancouver games in 2010. The parallel slalom and parallel giant slalom events eschew the jumps and tricks of the other forms of snowboarding, as participants carve their way to the bottom at high speed through a series of tight twists and turns. Austria's Andreas Promegger, Roc Margoc of Slovenia and France's Sylvain Dufour will battle it out for the medals in both disciplines, with Margoc the favourite for the slalom. There is a good chance the women's events also turn out to be all-European affairs on the podium, and Switzerland's Patrizia Kummer may well walk away with two gold medals. To do so, she will have to beat off the challenge of German rivals Amelie Kober and Isabella Laboeck, with Austria's Julia Dujmovtis also capable of throwing a spanner in the Swiss works. (Editing by Steve Wood/Mitch Phillips)