Park City, UT (Friday, May 9, 2003) - Former world champions Rick Bower (Park City, UT) and Sondra Van Ert (Ketchum, ID) have retired from World Cup and other competitive snowboarding, U.S. Head Coach Peter Foley announced Friday.

The two U.S. Snowboarding veterans were among the most veteran riders on the U.S. team: Van Ert, a two-time Olympian who also was the 1997 world giant slalom champion, had been on the squad since it was formed with the 1995 season while Bower, the '99 FIS World Championships halfpipe gold medalist, was a six-year veteran.

"Both Bower and Sondra had a lot to do with shaping the program over the years and really creating its personality," said Foley. "Hopefully down the line we'll see Rick working with the team again in a different capacity, and everyone will miss Sondra, she's an amazing example of hard work and a good attitude. If there's one person that wouldn't let her teammates or even the coaches slack, it was Sondra."

Bower, 25, had his sights set on the '02 Olympic Games in his hometown before landing flat during a training run at the final pre-Olympics Grand Prix event, blowing out his ACL and knocking him out of Olympic contention. He underwent surgery 10 days before the games and was forced to cheer from the sidelines. He's retired to become assistant director of Park City Mountain Resort's snowboard team.

"It's been a great ride," said Bower. His father is a two-time Olympic nordic combined skier (1964, '68) and one of the nation's top alltime combiners, but it was snowboarding which captured Bower's attention as a youngster.

"I feel really fortunate to have been a part of U.S. Snowboarding over the years and also to have gotten to know all the riders and coaches. The U.S. is lucky to have such great coaches that don't get too much of the praise for the work that they do, and it's special to have been able to work with them.

"I love what the U.S. program is shaping up to be," added Bower. "It's adapting to snowboarding and growing with the riders. I'll always love competitive snowboarding, it allowed me to travel the world doing what I love to do, but after seven years of constant competition, it's time to try something else."

Bower's duties with PCMR will be to field and coach a competitive snowboarding team comprised of young riders and then assist in developing their talents. Such programs serve as an integral pipeline to U.S. Snowboarding.

Van Ert, 39, has a career which reads like a storybook of snow sports; she was a World Cup ski racer for the U.S. Ski Team and, after retiring in the mid-Eighties, then raced for the University to Utah (where she earned a degree in finance). While recovering from knee surgery in 1990, she spotted kids having fun snowboarding; she tried it and was hooked. In addition to the '97 GS gold medal, she won three other Worlds medals and had eight World Cup victories in four different events (GS, PGS, snowboardcross and super G); she also won 10 U.S. snowboard titles.

After a frustrating season in '02, she decided she wouldn't end on a sour note. Van Ert blistered through the '03 season with eight top-10 finishes, including a snowboardcross win at the South American Cup.

"I just feel so fortunate the U.S. Snowboarding program was there," said Van Ert. "After nine years of World Cup snowboarding, I look back and realize that there is no way that I could have done it without this program and its coaches."

As for the future, Van Ert says it's all up in the air and that she'll take some time to regroup before deciding what the next chapter of her life will be.

"Maybe I'll become a skeleton racer," joked Van Ert, "so I can go to another Olympic Games. Winning a world championship was definitely my competitive highlight, but nothing can match the feel of going to the Olympic Games - those memories will always be the best."