Snowboarding at the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Games:

The format was changed slightly from 1998. As in 1998, there were two runs in both the qualifying and the final, but this time only the best score of the two runs counted for the final placement in the final. In the qualifying, the best six finishers from each run advanced to the final, where 12 competed. Ross Powers (USA) had won a bronze medal in this event at the 1998 Olympic Winter Games. But in 2002, he won the final quite easily. On the first run of the final, he posted 46.1 and this held up to win by 3.6 points over his teammate, Danny Kass. Third place went to another American, Jarret Thomas. The American sweep was the first for the United States at the Winter Olympics since men’s figure skating in 1956.