For American Pair, Winning Isn’t Old

Sondra Van Ert and Betsy Shaw are not your typical Board Bettys.

The term--lingo for female snowboarders--conjures up images of teen-age Valley Girls.

But Van Ert and Shaw are 30-something “old ladies” with a serious mission: winning the first ever women’s gold medal in the new Olympic sport of snowboarding.

Van Ert, 33, and Shaw, 32, are half of the U.S. women’s team entered for the giant slalom race at Mount Yakebitai. The other Americans are Rosey Fletcher, 22, and Lisa Kosglow, 24.

With the American men shut out of the podium in the giant slalom, the women were looking to produce the first U.S. medals of the Nagano Games.

All four Americans were considered medal contenders.

Van Ert, of Ketchum, Idaho, skied for the U.S. Alpine team for three seasons. After reconstructive surgery on her right knee, she took up snowboarding in 1989. She was 25.

“I took one run, tumbled all the way down and I was hooked,” she said. “I loved the feeling of the sharp turn, the perfect carve that I had never been able to achieve on skis. Plus, powder was the ultimate on a snowboard. I felt completely free, as if I were just floating down the slope.”

Like Van Ert, Shaw took up skiing at age 3. She also tried racing, but switched to snowboarding in 1988 at age 23. She’s been one of the most successful U.S. riders of the 1990s.

Shaw, of East Dorset, Vermont, recalls aspiring to compete in the Olympics--as a figure skater.

“I remember as a little kid watching Dorothy Hamill win something or other,” she said. “I remember getting caught up in the hype. I immediately went out and tried skating on the pond in our backyard. I fell a lot. I still can’t skate very well.”