Spencer O'Brien

Spencer O’Brien (born February 2, 1988) is a Canadian snowboarder. She was born in Alert Bay, British Columbia, and is of Indigenous descent.[2] She won the gold medal in slopestyle at the 2013 FIS Snowboarding World Championships.[3]

Spencer O’Brien
Personal information
NationalityCanadian
Born (1988-02-02) February 2, 1988
Alert Bay, British Columbia, Canada
ResidenceVancouver, British Columbia[1]
Height5 ft 7 in (1.70 m)[1]
Weight150 lb (68 kg)[1]
Sport
CountryCanada
SportSnowboarding
Medal record
Representing  Canada
Women's Snowboarding
FIS Snowboarding World Championships
2013 StonehamSlopestyle
Winter X Games
2016 AspenSlopeStyle
2009 AspenSlopeStyle
2008 AspenSlopeStyle
2013 AspenSlopeStyle
2014 AspenSlopeStyle

O’Brien has also won five medals (one gold, one silver, three bronze) at the Winter X Games. She is one of only few Olympians coming from Canadian First Nations. She belongs to Haida and Kwakwaka’wakw in British Columbia.

Spencer O'Brien has been credited as one of the world's top female snowboarders.[4] She has acquired this title by achieving prestigious feats, such as in 2012 when she was declared the champion of the World Snowboard Tour.[5] A few weeks before the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, O'Brien was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis (On Nov. 25, 2013). She came in last (12th place) during the Olympic event, yet she did not attribute this to her disease.[6]

During the 2016–17 FIS Snowboard World Cup, O'Brien won the silver medal with a top-scoring run of 81.22 points, she is seen as an Olympic podium prospect for the 2018 Winter Olympics.[7]

Career

O'Brien grew up in the West Coast of Canada in Courtenay, BC a city on Vancouver Island.[8] She started skiing when she was 2 years old, but then switched to snowboarding when she was 11.[8][9] In 2008 O'Brien was voted Transworld’s Rookie of the Year.[10]

In 2017 Spencer won Bronze in the snowboarding slopestyle event at the Burton US Open in Vail, Colorado.[11]

X Games

O'Brien has been a competitor for Women's slopestyle at the X Games since 2007. She has 5 X Games medals including 1 Gold which she has won in her 11th X Games appearance in 2016. In 2015 O'Brien became the first women to successfully land a Backside 900 trick in X Games competition.[12]

References
  1. "Spencer O'Brien Profile – Bio". ESPN. Archived from the original on July 20, 2012.
  2. "Spencer O'Brien - Manifesto Sport Management". manifestosport.com. Retrieved March 23, 2017.
  3. "North Vancouver's Spencer O'Brien wins gold at snowboard worlds". Vancouver Sun. January 18, 2013. Retrieved January 27, 2013.
  4. http://search.proquest.com/docview/1272072283
  5. "Spencer O'Brien". Official Canadian Olympic Team Website | Team Canada | 2016 Olympic Games. January 3, 2014. Retrieved March 23, 2017.
  6. "Disease under control, Spencer O'Brien no longer sore on her snowboard". 1310 NEWS. January 25, 2017. Retrieved March 23, 2017.
  7. Dheensaw, Cleve. "Courtenay snowboarder Spencer O'Brien wins silver at World Cup event". Times Colonist. Retrieved March 26, 2017.
  8. Kingsnorth, Tom. "World's Top 10 Snowboarders No.5 Spencer O'Brien". Retrieved March 24, 2017.
  9. "Spencer O´Brien". World Snowboard Tour. Retrieved March 24, 2017.
  10. "Snowboard - sport_HP-BA-SBS - Athlete: Spencer O BRIEN". FIS-SKI. Retrieved March 24, 2017.
  11. "anna-gasser-and-mark-mcmorris-win-2017-burton-us-open-slopestyle-titles". Burton Events. Retrieved March 24, 2017.
  12. "Spencer O'Brien". ESPN Internet Ventures. Retrieved January 19, 2017.


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