Ingemar Backman (born 1 April 1976 in

Gällivare Gällivare (; fi, Jällivaara; se, Jiellevárri or ; smj, Jiellevárre or ; fit, Jellivaara) is a locality and the seat of Gällivare Municipality in Norrbotten County, province of Lapland, Sweden with 8,449 inhabitants in 2010. The town w ...

, Sweden) is a professional

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 Paralympi ...

famous for setting the world record highest air out of a quarter-pipe (8.5 metres) in

Riksgränsen Riksgränsen, ( no, Riksgrensen), ''The National Border'' in Swedish, is a ski-resort in Kiruna Municipality, Lappland, Sweden, 200 km north of the Arctic Circle. The skiing season is from February to June. From end of May the lifts opera ...

, Sweden in May 1996. He participated in the

1998 Winter Olympics The 1998 Winter Olympics, officially known as the and commonly known as Nagano 1998 ( ja, 長野1998), was a winter multi-sport event held from 7 to 22 February 1998, mainly in Nagano, Japan, with some events taking place in th ...

. The record has since been broken by Finn Heikki Sorsa who made a 9.3 metres high air at

The Arctic Challenge The Arctic Challenge is a snowboarding contest arranged for and by the riders themselves. It was started by Norwegian professional snowboarders Daniel Franck and Terje Håkonsen. The contest was established as an alternative to the former competiti ...

event held in Oslo in 2001 and then again by Norwegian Terje Haakonsen who made a 9.8 metres high air at The Arctic Challenge in Oslo in 2007. After going to snowboard high school in

Malung Malung is a locality and the seat of Malung-Sälen Municipality, Dalarna County, Sweden, with 5,126 inhabitants as of 2010. Overview Malung is home to Malungs Folkhögskola, two kilometers south of the town centre. Specialized courses include fo ...

, Sweden, he became the first snowboard superstar emerging out of Sweden although he was soon followed by riders such as Johan Olofsson. He has lived in

San Diego San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the eighth most populous city in the United States ...

U.S. The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territor ...

as well as Piteå, Sweden but currently resides in

Skellefteå Skellefteå (, locally ) is a city in Västerbotten County, Sweden. It is the seat of Skellefteå Municipality, which had 73,246 inhabitants in 2021. The city is historically industrial, with mining being a large part of that industry, especiall ...

, Sweden. Besides snowboarding, Backman is the co-founder of the clothing brand

WeSC WeSC (short for "We are the Superlative Conspiracy") is a Swedish clothing brand that is primarily influenced by skateboarding and snowboarding. The company's head office is in Stockholm and employs between 51 and 200 staff members. The company' ...

and the snowboard company Allian. Lately, Backman has taken a break from snowboarding and instead devoted himself to

poker Poker is a family of comparing card games in which players wager over which hand is best according to that specific game's rules. It is played worldwide, however in some places the rules may vary. While the earliest known form of the game w ...

. In his second international tournament, an EPT event held in

Baden Baden (; ) is a historical territory in South Germany, in earlier times on both sides of the Upper Rhine but since the Napoleonic Wars only East of the Rhine. History The margraves of Baden originated from the House of Zähringen. Baden ...

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

in 2005, he finished in fifth place. He is currently sponsored by the internet poker site Martinspoker. Backman is a playable character in the video game ''

Shaun Palmer's Pro Snowboarder ''Shaun Palmer's Pro Snowboarder'' is a 2001 snowboarding video game with a similar feel to the ''Tony Hawk's Pro Skater'' series. It was developed by Dear Soft and published by Activision under the Activision O2 label. The game features ten fam ...

''.

References

External links

Allian Snowboards

Hendon Mob tournament results
{{DEFAULTSORT:Backman, Ingemar 1976 births Swedish poker players Swedish male snowboarders Living people Olympic snowboarders of Sweden Snowboarders at the 1998 Winter Olympics