Tom Velisek (born January 15, 1981, in

Nelson, British Columbia Nelson is a city located in the Selkirk Mountains on the West Arm of Kootenay Lake in the British Columbia Interior, Southern Interior of British Columbia, Canada. Known as "The Queen City", and acknowledged for its impressive collection of resto ...

) is a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

snowboarder, specializing in the

snowboard cross Snowboard cross, also known as boardercross, is a snowboard competition in which four to six competitors race down a course. Snowboard cross courses are typically quite narrow and include cambered turns, various types of jumps, berms, rollers, ...

event. Velisek made his World Cup debut in December 2001 at

Whistler, BC Whistler ( Lillooet/Ucwalmícwts: Cwitima, ; Squamish/Sḵwx̱wú7mesh: Sḵwiḵw, ) is a resort municipality in Squamish-Lillooet Regional District, British Columbia, Canada. It is located in the southern Pacific Ranges of the Coast Mount ...

. His first World Cup podium came in January 2003, when he won bronze at an event in

Berchtesgaden Berchtesgaden () is a municipality in the district Berchtesgadener Land, Bavaria, in southeastern Germany, near the border with Austria, south of Salzburg and southeast of Munich. It lies in the Berchtesgaden Alps, south of Berchtesgaden; the ...

, and his first, and to date, only victory was in 2004, at Bad Gastein. Velisek's best World Cup season came in 2004, when he placed 6th overall in the snowboard cross standings. He has competed at four FIS Snowboarding World Championships, with his best finish a 4th in

2009 File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The vertical stabilizer of Air France Flight 447 is pulled out from the Atlantic Ocean; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States; 2009 Iran ...

. Velisek competed at the

2006 Winter Olympics The 2006 Winter Olympics, officially the XX Olympic Winter Games ( it, XX Giochi olimpici invernali) and also known as Torino 2006, were a winter multi-sport event held from 10 to 26 February 2006 in Turin, Italy. This marked the second t ...

, in the

. He placed 18th in the qualifying rounds, advancing him to the finals, but a third-place finish in his heat meant he did not advance any further, leaving him 23rd overall. His sister Billie is known for competition

ski mountaineering Ski mountaineering (abbreviated to skimo) is a skiing discipline that involves climbing mountains either on skis or carrying them, depending on the steepness of the ascent, and then descending on skis. There are two major categories of equipmen ...

World Cup podiums

References

External links

FIS profile
1981 births Living people Olympic snowboarders for Canada Snowboarders at the 2006 Winter Olympics People from Nelson, British Columbia Canadian male snowboarders {{Canada-snowboarding-bio-stub