Arielle Gold

Arielle Gold

Personal information
Full name	Arielle Townsend Gold[1]
Nickname(s)	Ron Burgundy, Rel, Relish, Relly Belly[2][3]
Born	(1996-05-04) May 4, 1996 (age 28) Steamboat Springs, Colorado, U.S.
Alma mater	University of Colorado
Height	5 ft 4 in (163 cm)
Sport
Sport	Snowboarding
Event	Halfpipe
Coached by	Mike Jankowski[3]
Achievements and titles
Highest world ranking	World champion (2013)
Medal record Women's snowboarding Representing  USA Event 1st 2nd 3rd Winter Olympics 0 0 1 FIS Snowboard World Championships 1 0 0 Winter X Games 0 2 1 FIS Snowboarding Junior World Championships 1 0 0 Winter Youth Olympic Games 0 2 0 Total 2 4 2 Winter Olympics 2018 Pyeongchang Halfpipe FIS Snowboard World Championships 2013 Stoneham Halfpipe Winter X Games 2016 Aspen SuperPipe 2018 Aspen SuperPipe 2013 Aspen SuperPipe FIS Snowboarding Junior World Championships 2012 Sierra Nevada Halfpipe Winter Youth Olympic Games 2012 Innsbruck Halfpipe 2012 Innsbruck Slopestyle
Updated on 13 February 2018

Arielle Townsend Gold (born May 4, 1996) is an American Olympic medalist snowboarder.

In 2012, she won the gold medal in the halfpipe at the FIS Junior Snowboarding World Championships, at the age of 15. The next year, she won the gold medal in the halfpipe at the FIS Snowboarding World Championships 2013, at the age of 16, becoming the second-youngest snowboarder to win a world championship.

She won a bronze medal in the superpipe at the 2013 Winter X Games XVII. In 2014, she was the youngest member of the US Sochi Winter Olympics halfpipe team, at the age of 17. She suffered a separated shoulder right before the Olympics and was unable to compete. Competing for the US in the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea, she won a bronze medal in the women's halfpipe event.

Her older brother is Olympian snowboarder Taylor Gold.

Personal life

Gold is Jewish and was born in Steamboat Springs, Colorado.^[4][5][6] Her older brother is American Olympian snowboarder Taylor Gold.^[4]

She competed in rodeos and horse jumping events before becoming involved in snowboarding.^[7] She lives in Steamboat Springs and attended Steamboat Springs High School.^[6][8] She later transferred to the Insight School of Colorado, a full-time online public charter school that allowed her to take her classes online.^[9] Gold studied psychology at the University of Colorado.^[10]

Her father Ken Gold, a former professional moguls skier would video each of her practices.^[11][12] The family moved to Breckenridge, Colorado for five months every year to be closer to her competitions.^[12]

Snowboarding career

She learned to ski when she was three years old.^[13] Her older brother convinced her to switch to snowboarding when she was 7.^[9] She said: "Taylor made it look like so much fun".^[14] Their father said:

Taylor is, in many ways, responsible for Arielle’s success because he... told her: 'Look, most of the girls do things the way the other girls do. You need to do things the way the guys do. You need to grab your snowboard, you need to go big, you have style, you need to have aggression in your riding.'^[15]

She is a member of the Steamboat Springs Winter Sports Club.^[6] Her home mountain is Mount Werner in the Park Range of the Rocky Mountains in Colorado, four miles from Steamboat Springs.^[16] Gold began competing when she was eight years old.^[7]

2010–12: Junior World Champion

In 2010, she won the Burton US Open Junior Jam halfpipe contest.^[17] In 2011, she won a silver medal at the U.S. Revolution Tour, Copper Mountain, Colorado, United States of America Snowboard and Freeski Association (USASA) National Championships.^[6][13][17]

In 2012 at the Winter Youth Olympic Games in Innsbruck, Austria, she won silver medals in slopestyle and halfpipe. ^[8] She won the gold medal in halfpipe at the FIS Junior Snowboarding World Championships in the Sierra Nevada (Spain) at the age of 15.^[8][18] For 2012, she ranked 14th on the World Snowboard Tour.^[6]

2013: World Champion

She won the gold medal in the halfpipe at the FIS Snowboarding World Championships 2013 in Stoneham-et-Tewkesbury, Quebec, Canada, at the age of 16, the second-youngest ever to win a World Championship.^{[6][7][19][20]} Later that week after replacing the injured Gretchen Bleiler, Gold won a bronze medal in the superpipe at the Winter X Games XVII in Aspen, Colorado.^[9][21]

She won the Burton European Open in Laax, Switzerland, came in second in the 2013 Grand Prix in Park City, Utah in February, and won the bronze medal at X Games Europe in Tignes, France.^[6][7][8] She ranked second on the 2013 World Snowboard Tour^[8] and also earned a place on the U.S. Snowboarding pro team.^[8]

2014: Olympian

Gold was the youngest member of the US 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics halfpipe team at the age of 17, and was considered a medal contender in the women's halfpipe.^{[22][23][24][25]} She was not able to compete in the qualification for the Olympic halfpipe finals, because of a separated right shoulder injury suffered on February 12, 2014, when she caught an edge at the end of the pipe during a practice run and crashed at Rosa Khutor Extreme Park in Krasnaya Polyana, Russia, moments before the competition.^{[23][24][25][26][27]}

2015-17

In 2015 she finished second in the Sprint U.S. Grand Prix in Park City, Utah, third in the Burton US Open in Vail, Colorado, and fourth in the X Games in Aspen.^[10]

In 2016 she won a silver medal in the X Games in Aspen, and a bronze medal in the X Games in Oslo, Norway.^[10]

She was ranked 6th in the 2017 FIS World Cup Halfpipe Standings.^[10]

2018: Olympian

Competing for the United States in the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea, she won a bronze medal in the women's halfpipe event.^[28]

See also

• List of Jewish skiers and snowboarders
• List of Jewish Olympic medalists

References

1. "Arielle Gold on Twitter". Twitter.
2. "14 things you didn't know about snowboarder Arielle Gold". NBC. January 23, 2014. Archived from the original on February 28, 2018. Retrieved April 2, 2014.
3. "Arielle Gold | Snowboard | United States". Sochi2014.com. Organizing Committee of the XXII Olympic Winter Games and XI Paralympic Winter Games of 2014 in Sochi. February 23, 2014. Archived from the original on March 20, 2014. Retrieved April 2, 2014.
4. Amishai Gottlieb (February 5, 2014). "Snowboarding Siblings Among Jewish Athletes Seeking Gold in Sochi". Jewish Exponent. Archived from the original on April 2, 2015. Retrieved April 1, 2014.
5. Finkelstein, Seth (February 23, 2014). "Sizing up some of the non-Israeli Jews in Sochi". The Jerusalem Post. Retrieved April 1, 2014.
6. "Arielle Gold". U.S. Snowboarding. Retrieved April 1, 2014.
7. "Arielle Gold – 2014 Winter Olympics – Olympic Athletes – Sochi, Russia". ESPN. May 4, 1996. Retrieved April 1, 2014.
8. "Arielle Gold". NBC. Retrieved April 1, 2014.
9. John Coon (February 11, 2014). "From Students to Sochi: Arielle Gold soars straight from Steamboat Springs High School". MaxPreps. Retrieved April 1, 2014.
10. O'Connell, Ryan (February 12, 2018). "Arielle Gold: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know". Retrieved February 13, 2018.
11. Branch, John (January 19, 2014). "U.S. Snowboarding Olympians Include Siblings". The New York Times. Retrieved April 1, 2014.
12. Sam H. Sanders (January 18, 2014). "Sibling Snowboarders Hope To Reach Olympics At The Same Time". NPR. Retrieved April 1, 2014.
13. "Arielle Gold". Teamusa.org. Archived from the original on November 10, 2013. Retrieved April 1, 2014.
14. Linden, Julian (January 9, 2014). "Gold targets heaven in a halfpipe". Reuters. Retrieved April 3, 2014.^{[dead link‍]}
15. Branch, John (January 19, 2014). "U.S. Snowboarding Olympians Include Siblings". The New York Times. Retrieved April 5, 2014.
16. "Arielle Gold". Burton.com. Archived from the original on August 14, 2010. Retrieved April 1, 2014.
17. "Arielle Gold". Worldsnowboardtour.com. Retrieved April 1, 2014.
18. Blevins, Jason (November 25, 2013). "Brother and sister Taylor and Arielle Gold have mettle to medal". The Denver Post. Retrieved April 2, 2014.
19. Kelly Whiteside (January 22, 2013). "At 16, snowboarder Arielle Gold is flying high". USA Today. Retrieved January 26, 2013.
20. "Arielle Gold – Athletes". Detourbar.com. Archived from the original on April 7, 2014. Retrieved April 1, 2014.
21. Keith Hamm (January 26, 2013). "Kelly Clark three-peats in SuperPipe". ESPN. Archived from the original on January 29, 2013. Retrieved January 26, 2013.
22. 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.
23. Rachel Axon (February 16, 2014). "Arielle Gold shares video of brutal wreck that ended her Olympics". USA Today. Retrieved April 1, 2014.
24. 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.
25. 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.
26. Kelly Whiteside (March 25, 2014). "Moved by Sochi strays, Arielle Gold helps dogs at home". USA Today. Retrieved April 1, 2014.
27. 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.
28. "Chloe Kim wins Olympic halfpipe gold, USA's Arielle Gold takes bronze". 13 February 2018. Retrieved February 13, 2018.

External links

• Arielle Gold at the International Ski and Snowboard Federation
• Arielle Gold at Olympics.com
• Arielle Gold at Olympic.org (archived)
• Arielle Gold at Olympedia (archive)
• Arielle Gold at Team USA (archived)
• Arielle Gold at the X Games (archived)
• "Training and nutrition tips with US snowboarder Arielle Gold" (video), YOG News, June 2, 2013
• "Future Game Changer: Arielle Gold" (video), Sports Illustrated, July 3, 2012
• "Athlete Spotlight: Arielle Gold" (video), Team USA, February 3, 2014