Athlete Information

• Name: Mayumi Fukuda
• Age: 25
• Marital Status: Single
• Years Riding: 7
• Competes: Half-pipe, Boardercross, Slopestyle, GS, Dual Slalom
• Home Mountain: Blackcomb/Whistler, British Columbia, Canada

Accomplishments:

• 1999 - No #1 ISF Swatch Tour BX Canyons, Utah
• 1999 - No #1 at The US - Snowboard Grand Prix, women's SBX Division
• 1998 - No #5 in World/Boardercross
• 1998 - Qualified 7th Canadian National Snowboard Team - Halfpipe
• 1998 - No #11 at US Open Boardercross
• 1998 - No #1 at Vegetate Boardercross
• 1998 - No #1 at Thredbo (Australia) Boardercross
• 1997 - No #1 at Vegetate Boardercross
• 1997 - No #1 Japanese Boardercross Champion

Future Goals:

To win Gold Medals in Half-pipe and Boardercross at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Utah. To do the best at everything I try.

Mayumi Fukuda had just won another gold medal, this time at the US - Snowboard Grand Prix days before she flew to Crested Butte to compete for the first time at ESPN's Winter X-Games. This world ranked (4th in the world) boardercross athlete is a third generation Japanese Canadian. "I feel I'm part of both worlds, Japanese and Canadian," says Mayumi who is coincidentally jetting off to Japan next month to compete in the Nippon Open. Before that however, she competes in Italy for the ISF World Championships, and then to Bear Mountain, California and Copper Mountain, Colorado to join the ISF Swatch Tour. Of all of the snow sports Mayumi loves competing in boardercross competitions although she also likes the half pipe. "In boardercross, it's the most unique and most real - you have to be a good free rider and an all around mountain person." "That's different than half pipe and racing which requires repetitive practice." "In boardercross you have to be always flexible and adjust quickly and you have to have alot of stamina and endurance." During the competition season, Mayumi stays on a high protein diet to keep her endurance and power up. Mayumi was disappointed with her performance at the Winter X-Games due to officials changing the course on the last day and not informing all of the athletes. "I memorized the course, and was not notified of the change and there was no time to train, then a cameraman was following me too closely and got in my way." "We asked for a re-run, but the scoring officials stated that they had already printed out the results, that's crazy...so I'm just writing this one off, and movin' on." That's exactly what world class boardercross athlete Mayumi is doing.

She sends her best regards to everyone and says "Please stay in touch!"
Fans can send greetings to her at Mayumi@Asianconnections.com
 

Asianconnections thanks ESPN, USSnowboard.com, Peak Products, Inc., Boardercross.com and Paul Ranch Rossi, Swatch boardercross competition designer for cooperation and permission to reprint Mayumi photograph.