BIOGRAPHY:
The brightest smile in snowboarding, Aspen's Gretchen Bleiler has reason to beam as one of the sport's most successful women. Her personality and character have exposed millions to snowboarding through her modeling in magazines like Glamour, but her talent in the halfpipe speaks louder. She proved her chops in 2006, cruising on to the Olympic Team and landing a silver medal in Turino. She made the Olympic team again in 2010 and in that same year nabbed yet another X Games gold medal (her third). But in 2011 Bleiler really stepped up her riding. After a short break at the start of the season to focus on creativity, Bleiler was back in the pipe landing a new trick—a back 9. With the new move on lock, Bleiler notched second-place podium finishes at the Grand Prix and Dew Tour, and she took third at the Burton US Open.

GRETCHEN SAYS:
My 2011 season was a year for competing less, and riding, learning, pushing my comfort zone and adventuring off to different aspects of the sport that I don't normally have the time for anymore!  I learned a lot and am grateful for the time I had to focus in that direction.  I learned backside 900s and started putting together back-to-back 900s in the pipe, which has been a huge accomplishment.  I also directed my energy this year towards riding park jumps and also working on backside rodeos - something that's been important to me for a while now. I want to take the momentum and the new level of riding that I accomplished this year and continue to roll it into this next season with more of a focus on contest results.

FIRST TRACKS:
When she was 10, she and her mom and brothers moved from Ohio to Aspen, and then to nearby Snowmass Village two years later. At her private school, located three miles from the Aspen Mountain ski area, part of the physical education curriculum allowed students out early on Wednesdays so they could ski at the nearby resorts. After four years of skiing, Bleiler switched to snowboarding at 14, and soon thereafter learned how to ride in a halfpipe with the Aspen Valley Snowboard Team. After graduating from Aspen High School in June 1999, Gretchen chose not to go to college and opted to travel and train for the 2002 Games. She joined U.S. Snowboarding in September 2000.

OFF THE SNOW:
When I'm not on snow you can find me designing my Oakley signature Gretchen Bleiler Collection, practicing yoga, hanging out with my newly adopted dog, Kota, and surfing!