Kaitlyn Farrington grew up on a cattle ranch in Bellevue, Idaho. She began snowboarding in 2003 when she was in the fifth grade and joined her local snowboarding team in the ninth grade. Her early path to becoming one of the best female snowboarders wasn’t always easy, but eventually she was invited to join the US Snowboarding’s Rookie Team in 2008 and in 2010 she became a fully-fledged member of the US Snowboarding Team. But let’s start from scratch…

As said, Kaitlyn’s path in the snowboarding world wasn’t always easy. For a start, she had to fund her early snowboard trips by selling some of the family’s cows… and it all paid off. Her big breakthrough year was in 2010 as she won gold in the superpipe at the European X Games, got second at the Burton US Open, won the U.S. Snowboarding Grand Prix, and, as already mentioned, became a member of the US Snowboarding Team.

Kaitlyn also became the first female rider to stomp a backside 900, and her bag of tricks is generally well worth a look: whether it’s a McTwist’s, a cab or frontside 900, inverted 720s, switch and backside spins—the 23 year old got them all covered and is a definite podium contender at… well, pretty much every halfpipe event she decides to attend. To prove the point, she most recently became the 2014 Olympic Gold Medal winner at the Sochi 2014 women Halfpipe contest. Congrats Kaitlyn!