Athlete Details
Country: France
Sport: Snowboard
Past Olympic Winter Games Attended:
Nagano 1998, Salt Lake City 2002, Torino 2006
Snowboarding was introduced to the Olympic competition at the Nagano 1998 Winter Games. The inaugural women's event, the giant slalom, was delayed one day because of a snowstorm. Twenty-year-old Karine Ruby of France was the overwhelming favourite, having won seven of the eight pre-Olympic World Cup competitions. Ruby had no trouble living up to expectations. Her first run time of 1:09.33 led the field by an impressive 1.97 seconds. She protected her lead with a relatively careful second run and won by 1.83 seconds. She also participated in the Salt Lake City 2002 Olympic Winter Games and earned the silver medal in the women’s giant parallel slalom event.
