In a sport where big impacts and injuries are common, snowboarders have to be fit—bulletproof even. So when the International Olympic Committee announced the addition of Snowboard Slopestyle to the Winter Olympics program last year, snowboarder Kimmy Fasani began intensive training.

Her five-foot-three body felt stronger than ever before.

Fasani was the first woman to land a double backflip in the terrain park and in the backcountry, a trick that might have been worthy of Olympic gold. But when the inaugural slopestyle event took place two weeks ago at the Winter Games in Sochi, Russia, Fasani wasn’t competing.

Read the full story online at Backcountry Magazine.

Kimmy Fasani contemplates the meaning of gold. [Photo] Peter Morning / Mammoth Mountain