Taylor Gold

Taylor Gold (born November 16, 1993) is an American Olympian snowboarder. He competes in the halfpipe.[2]

Taylor Gold
Personal information
Born (1993-11-17) November 17, 1993[1]
Steamboat Springs, Colorado[2]
Height5 ft 9 in (175 cm)
Weight150 lb (68 kg)[1]
Sport
SportSnowboarding
Event(s)Halfpipe
ClubSteamboat Springs Winter Sports Club[3]
Coached byMike Jankowski, Spencer Tamblyn, and Ashley Berger[1][4][5]
Medal record
Men's snowboarding
Representing the  United States
FIS Junior World Championships
2011 Valmalenco, ItalyHalfpipe
Winter X Games
2017 AspenSuperPipe

He is a two-time U.S. Revolution Tour champion, 2013 Copper Mountain Grand Prix/World Cup champion, 2014 Burton US Open champion, and 2014 Red Bull Double Pipe champion. He is also a Mammoth Mountain U.S. Grand Prix silver medalist (2013–14), 2011 FIS Junior World Championships silver medalist, and 2013 Breckenridge Dew Tour iON Mountain bronze medalist.[2] He competed for the United States in the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia.[2]

His younger sister is American Olympic bronze medalist and World Champion snowboarder Arielle Gold.

Personal life

Gold is Jewish, and was born in Steamboat Springs, Colorado.[6][7][8] His father, Ken Gold, who was a professional moguls skier, videotapes each of his practices.[1][9][10] His younger sister is American Olympic bronze medalist and World Champion snowboarder Arielle Gold.[6] He and his family live part of the year in Steamboat Springs and part in Breckenridge, Colorado.[10] ].[2]

Snowboarding career

Early years

Gold became interested in competitive snowboarding after watching the sport during the 2002 Winter Olympics .[1][8] He trained at the Steamboat Springs Winter Sports Club, and began competing at the age of nine.[1][3]

His home mountain is Steamboat.[3] He is coached by Mike Jankowski, Spencer Tamblyn, and Ashley Berger.[1][4][5]

2011–12: Junior World Championships silver medalist

He was on the 2011 FIS World Championships team in Spain, and earned a gold medal in halfpipe at the 2011 FIS Junior World Championships in Valmalenco, Italy.[1][2][8] He won in halfpipe at the 2011 U.S. Revolution Tour, in Mount Hood, Oregon, and at the United States of America Snowboard and Freeski Association (USASA) National Championships.[3][8]

For most of 2012, he was sidelined with a bruised heel injury.[8][11][12]

2013–14: Olympian

In 2013, Gold won the halfpipe competition in the U.S. Revolution Tour/US Open Qualifiers in Seven Springs, Pennsylvania, and placed sixth in halfpipe at the Burton U.S. Open in Vail, Colorado.[8] He also took second in halfpipe at the 2013 USASA Nationals in Copper Mountain, Colorado, and came in ninth in halfpipe in the 2013 Burton European Open in Laax, Switzerland.[8] He ranked 11th in the World Snowboard Tour standings in 2012–13, and was 5th in the world among men in reaching snowboard finals.[2][11]

He was also the 2013 Copper Mountain Grand Prix/World Cup champion, earned a silver medal in the Mammoth Mountain U.S. Grand Prix superpipe, and earned a bronze medal in the 2013 Breckenridge Dew Tour iON Mountain Championships.[2][9][13][14]

Gold competed at the 2014 Winter Olympics at Rosa Khutor Extreme Park in Sochi, Russia, in the halfpipe competition, after becoming the first snowboarder to qualify for the men's USA Team.[1][7][15] On February 11, 2014, at the Olympics Gold almost went to the finals of the snowboard halfpipe. But, on the end of his second run in a two-round semi-final he tried one last trick, but ran out of halfpipe, and fell.[4] He was one of the first two athletes to compete at a Summer or Winter Olympics with the surname "Gold."[1][9]

His sister was the youngest member of the US 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics halfpipe team, at the age of 17. But she was not able to compete in the qualification for the Olympic halfpipe finals, because of a separated right shoulder injury she suffered on February 12 when she caught an edge at the end of the pipe during a practice run and crashed moments before her competition.[16][17][18][19][20]

Not long after returning from Sochi, Gold won first place in the 32nd annual 2014 Burton US Open half-pipe competition in Vail, and also won the Red Bull Double Pipe over second-place 2014 Olympic bronze medalist Taku Hiraoka of Japan.[21][22][23]

2015–present

In early 2015, Gold had his first Dew Tour win.[24] He suffered a knee injury that included a broken kneecap, which kept him from competing in the 2015-16 season.[25][26]

Gold won a bronze medal in SBD SuperPipe at the X Games Aspen in 2017.[27] He had to sit out the 2017-18 season due to surgery that he had for two different injuries.[28]

See also

References
  1. "Taylor Gold | Snowboard | United States – Sochi 2014 Olympics". sochi2014.com. February 23, 2014. Archived from the original on January 30, 2014. Retrieved January 10, 2015.
  2. "Taylor Gold". Teamusa.org. Retrieved April 5, 2014.
  3. "Taylor Gold Professional Snowboarder Profile". Snowboarding.about.com. Retrieved April 5, 2014.
  4. Jason Blevins (February 11, 2014). "Taylor Gold of Steamboat Springs bows out in semis of Olympic halfpipe". The Denver Post. Retrieved April 5, 2014.
  5. "Taylor Gold". United States of America Snowboard Association (USASA). Archived from the original on April 7, 2014. Retrieved April 5, 2014.
  6. Finkelstein, Seth (February 23, 2014). "Sizing up some of the non-Israeli Jews in Sochi". The Jerusalem Post. Retrieved April 5, 2014.
  7. Amishai Gottlieb (February 5, 2014). "Snowboarding Siblings Among Jewish Athletes Seeking Gold in Sochi". Jewish Exponent. Retrieved April 5, 2014.
  8. "Taylor Gold". U.S. Snowboarding. Archived from the original on February 26, 2014. Retrieved April 5, 2014.
  9. Shawn Smith (January 21, 2014). "Snowboarding siblings Taylor and Arielle Gold ready to go for gold in Sochi". NBC. Retrieved April 5, 2014.
  10. Sam H. Sanders (January 18, 2014). "Sibling Snowboarders Hope To Reach Olympics At The Same Time". NPR. Retrieved April 5, 2014.
  11. Blevins, Jason (November 25, 2013). "Brother and sister Taylor and Arielle Gold have mettle to medal". The Denver Post. Retrieved April 5, 2014.
  12. Rachel Axon (January 15, 2014). "Snowboard sibs: Golds look to punch ticket to Sochi". USA Today. Retrieved April 5, 2014.
  13. "U.S. Snowboarding Grand Prix". World Snowboard Tour. November 1, 2013. Retrieved April 5, 2014.
  14. "Burton US Open presented by MINI". World Snowboard Tour. November 1, 2013. Retrieved April 5, 2014.
  15. Graves, Will (December 14, 2013). "Golds ready to take brother/sister act to Sochi". Wintergames.ap.org. Retrieved April 5, 2014.
  16. Chris Greenberg (February 12, 2014). "Arielle Gold Injured In Halfpipe Training, Forced To Pull Out Of Sochi Olympics Event". Huffington Post. Retrieved April 1, 2014.
  17. Rachel Axon (February 16, 2014). "Arielle Gold shares video of brutal wreck that ended her Olympics". USA Today. Retrieved April 1, 2014.
  18. Oz, Mike (February 13, 2014). "Gnarly crash ended teen snowboarder Arielle Gold's Olympics before they started | Fourth-Place Medal". Yahoo. Retrieved April 1, 2014.
  19. Jason Blevins (February 12, 2014). "Arielle Gold of Steamboat Springs crashes in Olympic halfpipe practice". The Denver Post. Archived from the original on March 2, 2014. Retrieved April 1, 2014.CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  20. Luke Graham, Joel Reichenberger (February 12, 2014). "Steamboat snowboarder Arielle Gold injured, out of Olympic half-pipe event". Steamboat Pilot & Today. Retrieved April 1, 2014.
  21. Gerhard Gross (March 9, 2014). "New and old school collide at 2014 Burton US Open pipe, Taylor Gold Wins". Transworld Snowboarding. Retrieved April 1, 2014.
  22. Nate Hoppes (March 23, 2014). "Taylor Gold Wins Red Bull Double Pipe". Redbull.com. Retrieved April 5, 2014.
  23. "Kelly Clark & Taylor Gold Win 2014 US Open Halfpipe Titles". 7skymagazine.ch. March 11, 2014. Retrieved April 5, 2014.
  24. "Steamboat Olympic snowboarders Taylor and Arielle Gold at home in Breckenridge" | SummitDaily.com
  25. "Taylor Gold Hungry for a Spot on the U.S. Superpipe Olympic Team" | Dew Tour
  26. "Clif Athlete - Taylor Gold - Snowboarding"
  27. "Taylor Gold's official X Games athlete biography"
  28. "Olympic cheat sheet: Meet Steamboat’s 2018 Olympians and find out when they’re on TV" | SteamboatToday.com
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