Champ was a Saddleback, Sugarloaf pioneer

CARRABASSETT VALLEY – The first Olympic gold medal winner in the bruising sport of snowboardcross got his start as a youngster at Maine’s Saddleback and Sugarloaf USA ski areas at a time when snowboarders were frowned upon.

Seth Wescott, a skateboarder in his hometown of Farmington, became a snowboarding pioneer when he strapped on a Burton board with makeshift bindings and no edge. Eventually, the equipment improved, and so did Wescott.

On Thursday, the 29-year-old became the first Olympic champion in snowboardcross as he edged out Slovakia’s Radoslav Zidek in Bardonecchia, Italy.

Back home in Maine, friends know Wescott as a friendly guy – not a rebel. Last year he became a part owner of a barbecue restaurant at Sugarloaf called The Rack.

“There’s nothing about Seth really that can be matched up with that old, out-of-date stereotype of the rebel snowboarder. He’s the nicest guy you’d ever meet. He’s a terrific ambassador of the sport,” said Sugarloaf’s Bill Swain.

Wescott, who has seven X-Games medals to his credit and won last winter’s SBX World Championships, was the favorite in the event.

He started on snowboards at a time when traditional skiers sneered at boarders – and even spat on him from chairlifts passing overhead.

“You’d have people yelling from the chairlift, and it was adults a lot of the time. It was disheartening at times,” Wescott recently told a reporter. “I was a 10-year-old kid feeling prejudice from adults.”

Jon Warren, a friend since the fifth grade, remembered the name-calling and being spat upon, as well. “It was kind of hurtful. At the same time, we were snowboarding, and we didn’t care what other people thought,” he said.

Warren and Wescott competed together at races and events across Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont. “It was clear from the start that he had something that a lot of other people didn’t have,” Warren said Thursday.

For his senior year, Wescott transferred from Mt. Blue High School to Carrabassett Valley Academy, where he graduated in 1994. His classmates included Kirsten Clark (1995), Bode Miller (1996) and Emily Cook (1997), all participating in this year’s Olympics.

His gold medal was a first for Carrabassett Valley Academy, Headmaster John Ritzo said from Italy, where he watched Wescott win gold.

Ritzo said Wescott has not changed from his days at CVA, where he was gracious and friendly – “not the kind of guy to shout out for attention.”

“He’s soft-spoken. He doesn’t draw a lot of attention to himself. At the same time, he’s determined and he’s a gifted athlete,” Ritzo said.

Ritzo said the snowboardcross final was exhilarating. The weather turned from rain and sleet to a sunny day for the final race featuring four of the world’s top snowboarders. He said Wescott was passed by Zidek but that Wescott chased him down and retook the lead.

“It happened in a blink of the eye. He wanted it bad. You could just feel his determination,” Ritzo said. “There was a spectacular finish.”

Afterward, Wescott basked in Olympic glory, draped in the Stars and Stripes and accompanied in the finish area by his parents, Jim and Jo Wescott, who recently moved to Belfast. After a mandatory drug test, Wescott hopped into a waiting vehicle for a ride to Turin for the medal ceremony.