He bought and sold real estate, initially investing some of his snowboarding winnings, and he hoped to build a luxury hotel. “I didn’t even have two pennies to buy weed.”For a one-time Olympic golden boy, it was a precipitous fall. Image Mr. Rebagliati says the Olympic gold medal he won in Nagano, Japan, has been a source of misfortune. Mr. Rebagliati recalled that at ski areas in California, snowboarders were often banned and ski patrols would call the police to complain that riders were trespassing. He and his friends would train by sneaking into ski resorts in the Vancouver area before ski season began and hiking up the mountains.

Source: New York Times November 02, 2018 20:59 UTC