Graham Watanabe (born March 19, 1982) is an American

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 ...

who has competed since 1996. He won three events in snowboardcross between 2004 and 2009. 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 ...

, Watanabe finished 31st in the

snowboard cross Snowboard cross, also known as boardercross, is a snowboard competition in which four to six competitors race down a course. Snowboard cross courses are typically quite narrow and include cambered turns, various types of jumps, berms, rollers, ...

event. His best finish at the

FIS Snowboard World Championships The FIS Snowboarding World Championships is the world championship organized by the FIS for Snowboarding. It was first held in 1996 and is now held every odd year. The championship events include Big air, Halfpipe, Parallel giant slalom, Para ...

was sixth in the snowboard cross event at Gangwon in

2009 2009 was designated as the International Year of Astronomy by the United Nations to coincide with the 400th anniversary of Galileo Galilei's first known astronomical studies with a telescope and the publication of Astronomia Nova by Joha ...

. It was announced on 26 January 2010, that Watanabe made the US team for the

2010 Winter Olympics The 2010 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XXI Olympic Winter Games () and also known as Vancouver 2010 (), were an international winter multi-sport event held from February 12 to 28, 2010 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, with ...

. Although Watanabe did not qualify for the quarter-finals in Vancouver, he described his Olympic experience, when he said, "Try to imagine Pegasus mating with a unicorn and the creature that they birth; I somehow tame it and ride it into the sky in the clouds and sunshine and rainbows. That's what it feels like." He was a subject in an episode of

BYU Television BYUtv is an American television channel and free family-friendly streaming service, founded in 2000, which is owned and operated as a part of Brigham Young University (BYU). The channel, available on most smart TVs or through cable and satellite ...

's '' The Generations Project'' documentary series in 2012.

References

*
"The Concierge Questionnaire-Graham Watanabe Interview"
www.conciergequestionnaire.com 5 June 2009. Retrieved 31 January 2010.

External links

* 1982 births American male snowboarders Living people Olympic snowboarders for the United States Snowboarders at the 2006 Winter Olympics Snowboarders at the 2010 Winter Olympics American sportspeople of Japanese descent X Games competitors Contestants on American game shows 21st-century American sportsmen {{US-snowboarding-bio-stub