‘Old Man’ Jasey-Jay ready for big finish
Jasey-Jay Anderson was more or less snowboarding his age this season.
The 42-year-old would occasionally sneak out of his retail shop — Jasey-Jay Snowboards in Mont-Tremblant, Que. — to show up on the World Cup tour in places like Carezza, Cortina and Lackenhof, and finish 30th, 33rd or 43rd in parallel giant slalom races. No shame in that. Not at his age. But he felt something invigorating start to build a week ago in Rogla, Slovenia, where he recorded his best finish of the season, a respectable 13th.
And then on Friday in Bansko, Bulgaria, the Canadian known on the circuit as “Old Man” won a gold medal in parallel giant slalom, his forte.
He’s the oldest winner in the history of snowboarding’s World Cup tour. It was his 28th victory in his 257th race, and his 62nd career podium finish.
He did it in fine style, beating 31-year-old Nevin Galmarini, the Swiss rider who leads the World Cup standings and is expected to medal in Korea.
He rides his own equipment, of course. And he’ll be in Pyeongchang for a historic sixth Olympics, the first Canadian winter athlete to do so.
In Korea, he’ll become the only rider to have competed in every Olympic Games since snowboarding was added to the program at Nagano in 1998.
Before Friday’s breakout performance, expectations for Anderson in Pyeongchang were low. He hadn’t won a World Cup race since March 2010. And he’s 42.
But he thinks he caught lightning in a bottle with a new board/plate system that’s been eight years in development.
“I didn’t know that I still have the legs for this, but I guess I still do,” he said at the bottom of the hill in Bansko. “Now, with the boards finally getting better, I’m looking forward to the Olympics and something big.”