Kelly Clark | |
Birth Date: | 26 July 1983 |
Birth Place: | Newport, Rhode Island, U.S. |
Occupation: | Professional snowboarder |
Spouse: | Marcus Hemington (m. 2023) |
Kelly Clark (born July 26, 1983) is an American snowboarder who won halfpipe gold at the 2002 Winter Olympics. Clark was born in Newport, Rhode Island. She started snowboarding when she was 7 years old, began competing in 1999, and became a member of the US Snowboard team in 2000. On January 25, 2019, at the Winter X Games in Aspen, she announced her retirement from the sport.[1]
Clark trained for competitive snowboarding at Mount Snow Academy in Vermont and graduated in spring 2001. She won a gold medal for women's halfpipe at the 2002 Winter Olympics[2] and competed in the halfpipe event again in the 2006 Winter Olympics. She ended up placing fourth behind fellow Americans Hannah Teter and Gretchen Bleiler, as well as Norwegian Kjersti Buaas. In the 2010 Vancouver Olympics Kelly won a bronze medal in the halfpipe after placing third behind American silver medalist Teter and Australian Torah Bright.
In the TTR World Tour 2007/2008 season, she recorded eight podium finishes out of 12 contest entries, with five of those as TTR Titles including the 6Star Burton European Open, the 5Star Chevrolet Grand Prix and the 6Star season-ending Roxy Chicken Jam US.In the 2008/2009 World Tour she finished the season as Swatch TTR World Snowboard Tour Champion.
Clark is based in Mammoth Lakes, California.[3]
Clark is a Christian. She rides with a sticker on her snowboard proclaiming, "Jesus, I cannot hide my love."[4] She discusses her faith andlessons from her life as a professional snowboarder in her 2017 memoir Inspired.[5]
Clark married Marcus Hemington in March 2023. In May 2024, she announced she was pregnant with her first child, a baby girl.[6]
In 2015, Clark received the Best Female Action Sports Athlete ESPY Award.[7]
Highlights of Swatch TTR 2009/2010 Season
Highlights of Swatch TTR 2008/2009 SeasonSwatch TTR World Snowboard Tour Champion 2008/09
Victories on the Swatch TTR World Snowboard Tour (status: July 2010)
TTR Star Level | Number of victories | |
---|---|---|
6Star Event | 7 victories | |
5Star Event | 4 victories | |
4Star Event | 2 victories |
Career highlights