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BARDONECCHIA -- If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, the U.S. female snowboarders paid their dual-medal winning male counterparts a big compliment Monday: another gold-silver finish.
Hannah Teter and Gretchen Bleiler took gold and silver on the halfpipe with much of the last-minute drama that took place Sunday in the men's contest.
Kelly Clark, the 2002 halfpipe gold medalist, finished fourth after a high-risk, big-reward routine on her final run fell short.
Norwegian Kjersti Buaas took the bronze. Sunday the U.S. men also finished gold, silver and fourth.
The ladies and gentlemen of the halfpipe have much more in common: strong family ties and newfound strength in teamwork from athletes who almost always compete as individuals.
Gold medalist Teter comes from a Belmont, Vt., family that has deep roots in snowboarding: Her older brothers Elijah and Abe are professional riders and middle brother Amen is her agent and manager.
Amen stood at the bottom of the pipe nervously as Bleiler attempted her final run and last chance to bump Teter from the top of the heap. When Bleiler's score proved insufficient, he was overcome by a wave of emotion.
"Hannah won, Hannah won!" he yelled, punching his fists into the air and giving high-fives to snowboard pioneer Jake Burton Carpenter, Teter's sponsor and fellow Vermonter. Amen then turned to the stands where the Teter family was jumping up and down.
Before he began to climb into the stands, he pulled his goggles over his eyes to hide the welling tears.
Family fosters 'no fear' grit
"Family is the foundation of everything," 19-year-old Hannah Teter said after receiving the champion's bouquet of roses. "This is a family thing. I got my no-fear attitude from my brothers from back when we used to bounce on the trampoline or going to the skate park."
"I'm best friends with my little sister," Amen said. "I'm 10 years older, so that's so cool."
Bleiler also cited her snowboarding brothers as the source of her competitiveness.
"When I joined the Aspen Valley Snowboard Team and started competing, that's when I knew I wanted to go as far in snowboarding as I possibly could," she said.
That parallels the experience of Sunday gold medal winner Shaun White, whose older brother Jesse is Burton team manager and sister Kari is also a snowboarder.
Silver medalist Danny Kass runs a snowboard gear company with older brother Matt.
White, 19, lives with his parents and brothers and sisters. Hannah shares a house with her brothers -- and charges them rent.
Bleiler and Teter said they got inspiration from White and Kass after watching Sunday's halfpipe drama from the DJ's booth at the bottom of the pipe.
"We got a good idea of what it would be like, with the crowd, the noise, the music," Teter said.
Individuals turn into a team
The quartet of American female snowboarders -- Teter, Bleiler, Clark and Elena Hight -- bonded into a team while sharing their Olympic experience.
"I was screaming a lot," Bleiler said. "I'd get in the locker room and just yell because of the tension."
When the women's contest came down to the last set of do-or-die runs, Bleiler and Teter took a page from White's book to relieve the incredible tension.
After botching his first run Sunday, White and U.S. snowboard coach Bud Keene took some soothing snowboard runs on the nearby Mezelet resort.
But the women's experience almost backfired.
"We went up the lift to the top of the mountain, relaxing in the sun, chilling out," Bleiler said.
"Then we got to the top and saw that all the trails were closed off," Teter interjected. "We had to go under the ropes. And there was powder (snow) there! That's what snowboarding's all about."
"And it worked out," Bleiler added. "Shaun got gold and Hannah got gold and I got silver."
And like White, Teter's first-run score of 44.6 (out of 50) was high enough to secure the gold medal.
But unlike White, who took a fun "victory lap" that included some snazzy ice-flinging sprays directed at fans and photographers, Teter had other plans.
Coach Keene told her she, too, could take a lap, but she insisted on doing the routine she had planned to do all along.
"My brother Abe planned it for me," she said. "I had to do it. I went as big as I could and tweaked all my grabs."
The result was an astounding score of 46.4. She didn't have to do it, but little sisters have to do what their big brothers say.
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