[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 12 (Tuesday, February 12, 2002)]
[Senate]
[Page S656]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




           VERMONTERS TAKE FIRST GOLD AT 2002 WINTER OLYMPICS

  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, my colleagues sometimes may wonder whether 
we Vermonters will ever run out of examples to illustrate the pride we 
take in our beautiful State and its people. Not today, we won't.
  Today I rise to describe two of Vermont's finest athletes 
representing all Americans at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake 
City.
  Vermont's cold winters and plentiful snow breed true winter athletes. 
We need not look any further than this year's Olympic roster to see 
this. At least 21 of America's competitors can claim ties to Vermont. 
Some of them have lived in the Green Mountain State for their entire 
lives, while others have come to our mountains to attend one of our 
schools or universities.
  During the last two days, two of these Vermonters swept the Olympic 
snowboarding halfpipe competitions, winning America's first two gold 
medals of the 2002 Winter Olympics. Vermont is famous for its firsts. 
Many of snowboarding's newly formed roots reach deep into the Green 
Mountains of our State. It is fitting that two Vermont snowboarders 
have shown the world how it is done.
  On Sunday, February 10th, 18-year-old Kelly Clark of West Dover, VT, 
became the first American to win a gold medal in the 2002 Winter 
Olympics, scoring a 47.9 out of 50 points in the women's halfpipe 
competition. Then on Monday, Ross Powers, 23, of South Londonderry, 
Vermont, took gold in the men's halfpipe competition, winning America's 
second gold medal of this year's Winter Games.
  Since the fourth grade, Kelly Clark has been riding the slopes of 
Vermont. Her parents own a small restaurant near the beautiful resort 
of Mount Snow. It was on our Green Mountains that Kelly exerted herself 
beyond belief, pushing the limit, jumping higher and attempting new 
moves. She succeeded because she refused to let danger, fear, and 
exhaustion keep her down.
  Kelly is no stranger to winning. Only two short months ago she won 
the gold medal at the Winter X-Games in Aspen, CO. On Sunday, not only 
did she win the gold medal, but she managed to do it under great 
pressure. As the last competitor of the event, she only had one last 
chance to show the world what she could do, and she rose to the 
challenge.
  The day after Kelly introduced herself to the world, Ross Powers won 
his second Olympic medal adding to a collection of medals he began 
during the 1998 Nagano Games when snowboarding made its Olympic debut. 
All the more remarkable is the fact that Ross led America in a medal 
sweep of a winter event for the first time in nearly half a century. He 
impressed the judges and spectators by shooting off the snow 15 feet 
into the air, landing flawlessly and performing trick after trick.
  His family and friends back at Vermont's Bromley Mountain and 
Stratton Mountain resorts watched Ross, as a child snowboard prodigy, 
work hard and push himself from the time he first strapped a snowboard 
to his feet at age five. Three years later he began competing.
  Recognizing the hard work, determination and financial backing it 
takes to become a world-class athlete, Ross formed the Ross Powers 
Foundation. This non-profit program gives talented and hard-working 
children the financial support they need to follow their winter sports 
dreams.
  I am sure many more of my fellow Vermonters will find their way onto 
our sports pages before the Olympics leave Salt Lake City. I know that 
the country shares our pride in the accomplishments of these courageous 
Olympic athletes. We Vermonters join all Americans in thanking Kelly 
and Ross, and all Olympic athletes, for their hard work and devotion to 
competition and to their country.

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