Simon Dumont taler ud...

Newschoolers.com er et af verden største freeski sites. De har talt med Simon Dumont om OL i half pipe for ski. Hør hvad Dumont fortalte i interviewet.

Newschoolers.com: “In the intro to the halfpipe section in Yeah Dude, it was really nice to hear you say how important it is for you to push the sport in the right direction and how badly you want to see it in the Olympics. A lot of kids haven’t had the opportunity to see that side of you, and they just hate on you and assume you’re in it for the money and call guys like you and Jon sell-outs for riding for companies like Target and J-Lindeberg.”

Simon: “That’s ridiculous. Money is important to me because what a lot of kids don’t understand is that when guys like me and Jon are pushing thirty, we might not be making as much money as athletes and we might not even have jobs. I hope that’s not the case but it’s likely that there’ll be seventeen-year-olds doing tricks we helped innovate bigger and better than us and the industry may toss us out in the cold as athletes. So it is important for guys like us to make our money now, but seeing the sport go in the right direction is very, very important to me, and that’s why I want to see halfpipe in the Olympics so bad. And anyone that doubts what the Olympics would do for skiing and says it would be the hugest sell-out just doesn’t know what they’re talking about. Just look at what it’s done for snowboarding and Shaun White.”

Newschoolers.com: “Oh yeah, I forgot that you’re friends with him. What’s his life is like after the Olympics?”

Simon: “It’s insane. His whole life has changed. I’ll be in the airport with him and he has to go and hide out in the Delta lounge, otherwise people will maul him. Everyone wants a piece of him, and you know how it goes, once you sign one autograph you’re signing for hours. People that don’t even snowboard know who he is and they all associate snowboarding with him, and that’s because of the Olympics.”

Newschoolers.com: “You know a lot of people don’t realize it, but there is still a chance for this event to happen in 2010 in Vancouver. It’s a small chance, but it’s still a chance.”

Simon: “Yeah, it’s dwindling down to almost nothing, but the announcement of halfpipe skiing being put on the Dew Tour is probably the best thing I could think of happening. The Honda Ski Tour is great, but it’s kind of a downer that there’s only two stops this year and that there’s going to be snowboarding in it. I’m going to do both stops, but I’m super stoked on the Dew Tour.”

Newschoolers.com: “Yeah we were talking about that at the office the other day and how sick it is that they’re putting skiing on it. For all the kids out there that don’t know what we’re talking about, the Dew Tour is a pretty damn big action sports event sponsored on by Mountain Dew that’s owned and broadcasted by NBC. Can you give them a little insight as to what’s going to happen with it?”

Simon: “The announcement was made pretty recently, so I’m not too sure about the Dew Tour other than it’s official, skiing is on it. But NBC does put it on and that’s a big, big deal. It’ll give a lot more people a little preview of what skiing is all about and what’s going on. And I think there’s enough drama in skiing competition-wise to make it a really attractive show that draws a lot of ratings for the networks and that’ll help with the Olympics.”

Newschoolers.com: “No doubt. You take a look at the X-Games superpipe and how ESPN broadcasts it on Sportscentre, which is a big deal for you guys and for skiing. They estimate that about two million people watch that every year, where as twenty to thirty million people watched the snowboard halfpipe in Torino."

Simon: “I know. It’s crazy. So if this whole thing with the Dew Tour goes well, and NBC is really stoked on it, there’s still a chance that they could go to the IOC and say ‘Hey, skiing halfpipe is huge,’ and drop it right into the Olympics.”

Newschoolers.com: “Yeah. A lot of people don’t understand that in some way, it’s the TV networks that truly run the Olympics. The proper protocol for a new event to be put in the Olympics is for the host city to be stoked to make it happen, the governing body of the sport, in our case FIS, to work out a judging system and start the worldwide grassroots circuit, before taking it to the IOC for approval for the Games, who then have to get the thumbs up from the networks that they want to broadcast the sport. It’s a lot of politics. I’ve conversed with a guy who is heavily involved with the organizing of the freestyle events at the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver. He was telling me that when they went to the FIS Congress last year in Spain, they pushed for skiing halfpipe because it made more sense to them to have that event than skiercross, because the venue is already going to be there so it wouldn’t cost anything extra, and it was more exciting and targeted the youthful demographic that the Olympics have been losing but are starting to get back with snowboard halfpipe. But at the same time, he said they had to walk the line as the organizing committee, because it was more than obvious that FIS wanted skiercross to happen. He said all the North Americans and the guys from the UK seemed super into halfpipe, but that anytime it was brought up, the Euros wouldn’t even acknowledge the topic and would change the subject right away, and so of course skiercross got approved over us. So the way things stand, it seems like the only way this is going to go down is if the whole chain of command goes in reverse and NBC steps up to the plate and plops a briefcase full of money on the IOC’s desk and says, ‘We want halfpipe skiing at 2010.’”

Simon: “Yeah, and let’s pray for it. I’m pretty sure that’s what happened with BMX in Beijing for next year. I don’t think that got approved until recently, and snowboard halfpipe didn’t get approved for the Olympics until over two years before 98.”

Newschoolers.com: “Actually, I think it was more like a year and a half, but I could be wrong.”

Simon: “Really? See, that’s what makes me think it could still happen, and I’m definitely going to do everything I can to see it go down.”

photo: Felix Rioux

Newschoolers.com: “What are you going to do personally to try to help the situation?”

Simon: "Anything and everything. Go to every halfpipe contest I can, compete the best I can and have as much fun as I can, because it the end that’s what’s most important in skiing. Every interview I do at every halfpipe contest from the X-Games to the Ski Tour I make a point of saying, ‘This is a push towards the Olympics. This event proves we have a structured event and that that we’ve got our act together and are working as hard as we can.’ And I have people in my life from my agent to my sponsors working behind the scenes to help try to make it happen as well.”

Newschoolers.com: “Douglas and I had a good chat about that a year ago and he was telling me that Troy (from Target) was planning on putting together a video of you and others skiing pipe and footage from the X-Games and whatnot to try to show it to Dick Ebersol (the president of NBC Sports) to show him what’s up. Which is pretty dope, considering not many people in the ski industry have the pull to have that sort of a meeting.”

Simon: “I’m pretty sure NBC would like to see it go down at this point, but another issue that has to get looked at it before it happens is the whole judging thing with FIS.”

Newschoolers.com: “You know a lot of people talk about the whole FIS thing and what it would take for halfpipe skiing in the Olympics to work, with the judging system and all, and we could have a whole other conversation about just that subject. Although I feel like I know quite a bit I can’t claim to know as much about it as a lot of people. But it seems to me for this to happen, there’s going to be certain sacrifices that will have to be made on the athletes’ parts, especially in the area of judging, and it’s possible that a few or a lot of athletes, like yourself or Tanner or Riddle, are going to get screwed hard by judging at FIS contests along the way in order to make this a reality, and for the event to go smoothly when it actually goes down. Are you willing to make that sacrifice?”

Simon: “Hell yeah. Because a contest is a contest and it doesn’t matter if FIS is judging it or not, there’s always controversy surrounding judging, and I don’t think I’ve ever been to a competition when someone hasn’t gotten screwed. It’s part of competing. And when it goes down, it’s not going to be random guys judging it, it will be FIS. And that’s okay, but we will all need to work super hard together to try to educate the judges and help them understand that the sport is unique and that’s why people come out to watch it and enjoy it.”

Newschoolers.com: “So if it doesn’t end up happening in 2010, do you think you could still be there in 2014 in Russia?”

Simon: “If I could do it, if my body holds up, yes, because an Olympic medal is my top priority. It’s the next thing on my list. I mean, I want my X-Games title back so bad, but if I can get an Olympic medal…I’d trade all my X-Games ones for it.”