The wind rips at your face as you shred down a mountain. You shift your weight as your snowboard leaves S-shaped carves on the snow covered canvas. Chaos swarms through your ears with only the sound of snow scraping across the bottom side of your board. Your heart pounds and your lungs gasp for breaths within the thin air.

If you are anything like me, you probably want something to either pump you up for the pre-summit or possibly something to clam the nerves as you cruise at mock speeds.

Many professional snowboarders and skiers turn to music for their outlets of sanity to put them in the zone or to keep them from over-thinking the stakes at hand.

Olympic athletes have a tendency of perforing well under pressure.

It is my belief that music has much to do with this.

Think of any winter Olympic athlete like Shaun White, Hannah Teter or Daniel Kass, just before they drop in on the half-pipe.

We watch on TV as they are lifted or a snowmobile takes them to the top of the course before a run. They are shown sitting in a tent alone with faces covered and bindings strapped. Two wires dangle from their ears, or possibly a helmet with built in headphones, as they juggle between choices of rock, rap, electronica, etc. Their bodies sit motionless as they envision the perfect run. All their practice, determination and luck boil down to this.

Focus is the only word crossing their minds as they flip through tracks trying to find the song.

According to a USA Today article, Kelly Clark was listening to Blink-182’s “I Guess This is Growing Up” when she won a gold-medal in women’s half-pipe snowboarding at the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics.

“(The music has) got to be something I’m excited about,” Olympic gold-medalist Shaun White said in a video interview on The New York Times Web site.

“It’s kinda gotta mean something to me. Yeah, some songs fire you up in a certain way. It could be slow song. It could be a fast song. It doesn’t have to be a certain thing. For a while there you would play that ‘Back in Black’ song, and it would just trigger my instinct to go do my run.”

One 2010 Olympic competitor is Louie Vito for the United States. In his video interview with The New York Times he said he rarely ever rides without listening to music.

“I like all music, but I listen to rap pretty much every time I ride,” Vito said. “It’s just nice you know. You kinda have something to cruise to. You have something to get you relaxed, especially for contests. You have everyone lined up on the side of the pipe or you have the announcer talking. You put your music on and you do not hear anything; when you’re riding the pipe you don’t hear everyone yelling at you in the air. You’re just kid of chilling. It blocks everything out.”

For more Olympic snowboarders thoughts on music, riding styles, training and more visit The New York Times Web site.

Snowboarding is a sport unlike many other Olympic events, but with music it is amazing the accomplishments we have seen from these athletes in just a short period of time.

It makes me think, what else can music help people do?

Brad York can be reached at 581-7942 or bayork@eiu.edu