They're also a lot of fun.
Of all the press conferences held with Olympic teams at the Vancouver media center, none have had more chuckles and chortles burst from reporters than the one with the men and women's U.S. snowboarding team on Thursday.
Like when Hannah Teter, the former Olympic champion, was asked how she was dealing with the fact that as a gold medalist, everyone would be gunning for her.
“I'm drinking a lot of Amp and they have McDonald's at the athletes village. So I hit that up every morning. Not!”
The character of the U.S. Olympic halfpipe snowboard team is perhaps best captured by what U.S. Alpine ski champion Picabo Street said to the U.S. Olympic team the night before. Returning Olympian Elena Hight retold the story for the reporters.
“She mentioned coming in and just really enjoying the experience. I think that is one thing that a lot of competitors have trouble doing at the Olympics. And she looked over at our half-pipe team and was like 'I'm not really talking to you guys, I'm talking to these guys over here because we know you're going to have fun.'”
“The heart of snowboarding is all about having fun,” said Hight.
Hannah Teter is a real odd one. She's been giving away all her prize money for three years and living off the fruits of her sponsors. She estimates she's given away around $200,000 over the years and has pledged to do the same if she wins gold this year and gets $25,000 from U.S. Olympic Committee.
She usually donates to her charity, Hannah's Gold, which sponsors a village in Kenya bringing it clean water. This year, she will send all her money to Haiti. She has also started two charity businesses, one selling maple syrup, a family tradition, and the other a line of women's underwear.
“Yep, that's what I do. I sell maple syrup and I have underwear coming out for charity, so all the ladies in here get some Sweet Cheeks underwear soon. Sweetcheekspanties.com.”
That tendency to joke around has earned snowboarders, particularly halfpipe snowboarders, a certain reputation.
“Snowboarding, it stands out, it stands out no matter what,” said Gretchen Bleiler who took silver in Turin in 2006.
When a reporter asked Gretchen if she thought the other athletes looked down on snowboarders, it was hard for her to answer through her chuckles.
“I can't speak for the other athletes in the village if they look down on us because we have so much fun.”
“The energy around us is a little different,” she said.
“Wherever we go, people are like, 'Those are the snowboarders, must be.' I think that's a good thing."
It's hard to capture in words what makes White's comments funny. When one reporter joked that White's most recent invention, the 'double mctwist 1260' should be renamed the 'Big Mac,' White responded that they were already tossing around the name 'the tomahawk.'
“That was the steak that I ate while we were in Aspen. It was massive. Either that or the 'devil eagle,' those sound equally delicious.”
