Gretchen Elisabeth Bleiler (born April 10, 1981) is an American former professional

halfpipe A half-pipe is a structure used in gravity extreme sports such as skateboarding, snowboarding, skiing, freestyle BMX, Inline skating, skating, and scooter riding. Overview The structure resembles a cross-section of a swimming pool, essentially t ...

snowboarder Snowboarding is a recreational and competitive activity that involves descending a snow-covered surface while standing on a snowboard that is almost always attached to a rider's feet. It features in the Winter Olympic Games and Winter Paralympic ...

. She won a silver medal at the 2006 Olympics.

Career

Born in

Toledo, Ohio Toledo ( ) is a city in Lucas County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. It is located at the western end of Lake Erie along the Maumee River. Toledo is the List of cities in Ohio, fourth-most populous city in Ohio and List of United Sta ...

, Bleiler aspired to compete in the Winter

X Games The X Games are a series of action sports events founded by ESPN Inc. and aired on ESPN networks and ABC. In late 2022, ESPN sold the long-running property to MSP Sports Capital, a private equity firm co-founded by Jahm Najafi and Jeff Mo ...

from a very young age, and found her passion in snowboarding at age 11 (1992). She has been riding ever since and became professional in 1996. Among her accomplishments, she jump-started the invert revolution for female riders as the first to land a Crippler 540 in competition, and won more halfpipe competitions in 2003, 2005 and 2006 than any other female snowboarder.Gretchen Bleiler
, aspensnowmass.com In the pre-Olympic season she won four of the five US Olympic halfpipe qualifiers and is also a four-time X Games gold medalist, most recently winning the superpipe at Winter X Games XIV. In 2003, she was a U.S. snowboard Grand Prix champion, a U.S. Open of snowboarding champion, and a Triple Crown of Snowboarding champion.whatever it takes to bring home something shiny
, 24hourfitness.com She posed for the February 2004 issue of '' FHM'', along with fellow snowboarder Tara Dakides and sportscaster

Jamie Little Jamie Little (born April 9, 1978) is an American pit reporter and play by play announcer for NASCAR coverage on Fox. Little is a former pit reporter for ESPN/ABC coverage of the Indy Racing League, although she returned to her pit reporting du ...

. Bleiler, who missed qualifying for the

2002 Winter Olympics The 2002 Winter Olympics, officially the XIX Olympic Winter Games and commonly known as Salt Lake 2002 (; Gosiute dialect, Gosiute Shoshoni: ''Tit'-so-pi 2002''; ; Shoshoni language, Shoshoni: ''Soónkahni 2002''), were an international wi ...

due to a tiebreaker, won a

silver medal A silver medal, in sports and other similar areas involving competition, is a medal made of, or plated with, silver awarded to the second-place finisher, or runner-up, of contests or competitions such as the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, ...

in the women's

at the

2006 Winter Olympics The 2006 Winter Olympics (), officially the XX Olympic Winter Games () and also known as Torino 2006, were a winter multi-sport event held from 10 to 26 February in Turin, Italy. This marked the second time Italy had hosted the Winter O ...

Turin Turin ( , ; ; , then ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. The city is main ...

, Italy. Starting in 2007, Bleiler expanded her career into snowboard and outerwear design, through Oakley and K2 Snowboarding, designing her own signature outerwear line for Oakley, and participating in the K2 Alliance, which develops and tests women's products, as well as working on the graphics for several K2 Boards. In 2008, she helped to create a new all-female invitational superpipe competition at

Snowmass Snowmass may refer to: * Snowmass Village, Colorado, a town in Pitkin County, Colorado, U.S. ** Snowmass (ski area) ** Snowmastodon site, an archaeological excavation near the town where well-preserved fossils of mammoths, mastodons, and plants we ...

called the Snow Angels Invitational.Gretchen Bleiler Interview
shredbetties.com While competing in the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics, many considered Bleiler a gold medal favorite. However, she fell on both of her final runs, and took 11th place. During the summer, Gretchen Bleiler coaches and mentors youth at High Cascade Snowboard Camp. In 2008, 2010, and 2014 she was awarded a Signature Session at High Cascade. Bleiler announced her retirement in January 2014 after being injured in a 2012 training accident and failing to make the

2014 Winter Olympics The 2014 Winter Olympics, officially called the XXII Olympic Winter Games () and commonly known as Sochi 2014 (), were an international winter multi-sport event that was held from 7 to 23 February 2014 in Sochi, Russia. Opening ro ...

team. She is currently pursuing speaking, writing, teaching, activism and being an entrepreneur; she is an owner o
ALEX
Bottle (which stands for "Always Live EXtraordinarily") with her husband Chris.

Career highlights

*2010 X Games Superpipe Gold Medalist *2008 Winter Dew Tour Superpipe Champion (Breckenridge, Co) *2008 X Games Halfpipe Gold Medalist *2006 FIS World Cup 1st Place, Saas Fe, Switzerland *2006 Olympic silver medalist *2006 Overall Grand Prix Champion; won four of the five Grand Prix events determining Olympic team *2005 X Games and Gravity Games Gold Medalist *2005 US Open Halfpipe Champion *FIS World Cup 1st Place, Bardonecchia, Italy *Eight straight wins in 2003 *2003 X Games Halfpipe Gold Medalist *2003 US Open Champion *Won 2003 Overall Grand Prix Title *One of only four females invited to coveted 2003 Arctic Challenge * 2002 and 2003 Vans Triple Crown Overall Title Winner *Won 2003 World SuperPipe Championships

Awards

* Voted 2006 Female Snowboarder of the Year at

FUEL TV Fox Sports 2 (branded on-air as FS2) is an American sports-oriented pay television channel owned by the Fox Sports Media Group, a unit of Fox Corporation. The channel is based at the Fox Sports division's headquarters on the Fox Studio Lot in ...

's inaugural Action Sports Awards * Nominated for 2006

ESPY Award The ESPY Awards (short for Excellence in Sports Performance Yearly Awards, and often referred to as the ESPYs) is an annual American awards show produced by ESPN since 1993, recognizing individual and team athletic achievement and other sports-r ...

* Won 2004 Colorado Female Athlete of the Year Award * Earned Transworld Snowboarding's Reader's Choice Award in 2004 * Nominated for 2004 Laureus "Female Action Sports Athlete" Award * Named Snowboarder and Transworld Snowboarding 2003 "Female Rider of the Year" * Nominated for 2009

Teen Choice Awards The Teen Choice Awards were an annual awards show that aired on the Fox television network between 1999 and 2019. The awards, based on a popularity vote that could be overridden by the producerswho reserved the right to choose the winnerscovered ...

"Other Action Sports Athlete – Female"

Personal life

Bleiler enjoys surfing, mountain biking, interior design and fashion. She is also active in several environmental organizations, including the Aspen Snomass Save Snow campaign, and stopglobalwarming.org. She lives in

Aspen, Colorado Aspen is the List of municipalities in Colorado#Home rule municipality, home rule city that is the county seat and the List of municipalities in Colorado, most populous municipality of Pitkin County, Colorado, United States. The city population ...

and is married to Chris Hotell.Profile
nbcolympics.com

References

External links

* * * * *

Gretchen Bleiler interview in frequency:The Snowboarder's Journal

Official website

Biography and interview at offthepodium.com
(archived)
Gretchen Bleiler on Go211.com - Exclusive photos, videos and blogs submitted by Gretchen
(archived) {{DEFAULTSORT:Bleiler, Gretchen American female snowboarders 1981 births Living people Snowboarders at the 2006 Winter Olympics Snowboarders at the 2010 Winter Olympics Olympic silver medalists for the United States in snowboarding Sportspeople from Aspen, Colorado X Games competitors Medalists at the 2006 Winter Olympics Sportspeople from Toledo, Ohio 21st-century American sportswomen