Gretchen Bleiler

Gretchen Bleiler (born on April 10, 1981 in Toledo, Ohio) is a professional halfpipe snowboarder and pioneer. She is said to be one of the most accomplished female snowboarders in the world.

She currently resides in Carlsbad, California and is 5’5. Bleiler aspired to compete in the Winter X Games from a very young age, and found her passion in snowboarding at age 11 (1992).

She has been riding ever since and became professional in 1996. Among her accomplishments, she jump started the invert revolution for female riders as the first to land a Crippler 540 in competition, and won more halfpipe competitions in 2003, 2005 and 2006 than any other female snowboarder.

In the pre Olympic season she won four of the five US Olympic halfpipe qualifiers and is also a four time X Games gold medalist, most recently winning the superpipe at Winter X Games XIV. In 2003, she was a U.S. snowboard Grand Prix champion, a U.S. Open of snowboarding champion, and a Triple Crown of Snowboarding champion.

Bleiler, who missed qualifying for the 2002 Winter Olympics due to a tiebreaker, won a silver medal in the women`s halfpipe at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy.