Queen City’s Austin Nettleton inches closer to pro-debut, Olympic dream

By Tim Emmons
temmons@casscountynow.com

Help form the first-ever Texas Tech Ski and Snowboard team. Check.
Compete against the best athletes across the country who grew up on a snow course and win. Check.
Bring home several accolades including a set of medals (gold, silver and bronze). Check.
Go pro and compete in the X-Games or Olympics. To be announced.
Former Queen City and Texas Tech graduate Austin Nettleton is quickly climbing a ladder that many will never set foot on.
The bottom rung on that ladder consisted of a couple of years competing individually before he and a teammate took their idea of Texas Tech’s first-ever Ski and Snowboard team to the regents.
Everything took off after that and things started to rapidly pick up pace.
The ride has been a memorable one for Nettleton.
A small look back at the prior years include his first year, 2013, in which Nettleton was part of the Southwest Freeride Series of the United States of America Snowboard/Skier Association (USASA).
The USASA is a grassroots organization that promotes safe, fair and fun events for snowboarders and skiers while fostering a competitive spirit. 
Nettleton raked in two silver medals at Nationals as part of the Skier/Boarder Cross held in Taos, N.M.
Austin’s Discipline was Boardercross; he was part of the Jam-Men 18-22 Division and was ranked second in the Freeride Series coming into the event.
Boardercross is a snowboard competition in which a group of snowboarders (typically four or six) start simultaneously atop a winding, inclined course and race to reach the finish line first.
The name of the sport is derived from motocross, as the course designs are similar in features to motocross courses.
After the competition was finished, Austin had a best three event total of 1820 points and was ranked 33rd in the country.
A year later in 2014 Nettleton was unable to compete in the Southwest Showdown at Angel Fire due to lack of snow, and competed with a broken tailbone during the 2014 nationals run.
At one point the Red Raider snow shredder rolled into nationals ranked seventh with 3,030 points as part of the national rankings for the boardercross/skiercross in the Southwest Freeride Series.
He also participated in slalom events for the first time and did exceptionally well.
Nettleton claimed two silver medals and two bronze medals in the slalom events which happened to be his first time to participate in those events during true competition.
Later he would compete in the Southwest Colorado Series at Crested Butte and in three races he racked up three gold medals.
Nettleton focused on boardercross only with a goal of making the top 10 and sported a ranking of 25 nationally but still ranked sixth in the slalom.
The talented snow-shredder ranked second in slalom and third in giant slalom which is impressive given that he had never tried the slalom events until this season.
All of this new training and success has Nettleton eyeing a possible run at the 2022 Winter Olympics.
“I know I can make history by becoming the first Olympic snowboarder from Texas,” Nettleton said. “I plan on making that happen.”
With Olympic dreams Austin never thought he would have the opportunity to make snowboarding a career.
“Boardercross is in the Olympics and it’s definitely my favorite discipline of snowboarding,” Austin remarked.”You’ve got jumps, table tops all that good stuff and pretty much race down four people at one time go down as fast as they can, first one across the finish line wins.”
In the mix of everything Nettleton received the opportunity of a lifetime when he was able to be coached by International Ski Federation and World Cup competitors, John Shelly and David Hugill.
He was also able to train alongside the Reign SBX snowboard cross team members in Whistler, Canada, and with the extra coaching he was able to shave 15 seconds off of his time overall.
In 2015 he was ranked 11th nationally in Boardercross Men’s Jams 18-22.
He also won a gold and silver medal at Crested Butte Mountain Resort in Colorado.
On Jan. 23, of this year Nettleton competed in the Return of the Jedi Challenge at Angel Fire Resort in New Mexico. On day one he placed third and earned a silver medal after completing day two.
With his exceptional finishes Nettleton received the opportunity to compete in the USASA National Championships in Lake Placid, N.Y.
Nettleton was ranked 12th in the 23-29 age group (amateur), he ranked second in the regional semi-pro part of USASA and was ranked 28th overall in the open class semi-pro which is the best-of-the-best in each division.
After a flawless time trial run the second try didn’t exactly go the way the team captain envisioned after taking a huge spill which resulted in a concussion and a broken nose.
If he is like any other passionate competitor, an injury is not in the cards, but one of this extent sidelined Nettleton.
For a brief moment his chances at another medal may have been derailed, but his vision and dream of one day competing at the X-Games or Winter Olympics burning deep within.