"Great racing here in Steamboat Springs, Colorado."

Cody Winters and Robby Burns are friends and fierce competitors in a snowboarding event called Parallel Giant Slalom.

Burns was first captivated by the event at age 11.

"I saw two athletes in a Parallel Giant Slalom course cresting a ridge down to the finish line and watching the artistic nature of it for me, it was something I was enamored with from that moment," says Burns.

Last week, he waited to hear whether he'd be competing in the 2022 Winter Olympics.

"You know a little bit like walking around on eggshells you know. Waiting for a sound, waiting for a text, waiting for a phone call."

Winters, another top American performer in a sport with zero margin for error…

"Alpine snowboard racing, you got 30 seconds to go down a hill and you got to be absolutely perfect, says Winters."

He was waiting for a call too.

"It's intense. I've about chewed all the fingernails I have off my fingers."

It's been a long, tough journey to this moment for both athletes. This snowboard racing discipline, with its high speeds on parallel courses with two dozen gates, is costly to master and maintain.   

Competitors here aren't provided physiotherapists, snowboard technicians and logistics managers like some in other countries. They pay for much of their own training.

Which Cody's dad says costs  about $80,000  a year. So Winters washes windows when he's not racing in Europe, and relies on a GoFund me page.

"It's a struggle for lot of kids. He wouldn't he where he is if he didn't work a full-time job in the summer. All summer," says Cody's dad.

Winters says, "Honestly I don’t mind it, I think the work I put in makes what I do have, I’m more appreciative of it."

Burns, whose corporate sponsorship has fallen off during the pandemic, also relies on fundraisers and his work as a wildland firefighter for half of the year.

"One of the best parts of that job is I'm required to stay in elite physical shape so I can go out and do the work. So that's always been a benefit, is it's a way I can make money for snowboarding, keeps me in good shape."

Both athletes began their snowboarding careers on Howelson Hill in Colorado, which bills itself as North America’s oldest operating ski area. The path from there to the Olympic doorstep has not been easy.

"A dream for two decades turned into a nine-year process of hard work to get here," says Burns.  

"What I really like is dynamic riding and a person who is having fun doing what he or she is doing."

Says their former coach, Thedo Remmelink, on the eve of the Winter Games…

"I think it's a time for gratitude and a time to look inward and look at it and go man this has been a heck of a process. I feel honored to just be in the running," says Burns.

On January 21st, 18 days before the competition, Burns and Winters were both told they'll represent the U.S. in snowboarding's Parallel Giant Slalom in Beijing. 

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