Vancouver, BC – The sport of halfpipe snowboarding has come a long way since its inclusion in the Olympics in 1998, and no group of athletes has been more instrumental in its recent evolution than the 2010 U.S. Olympic Halfpipe Team, which met the press for its arrival conference in Vancouver on Thursday afternoon.

"I think women's snowboarding has progressed so much in the last five years," said 2006 Olympian Elena Hight (South Lake Tahoe, CA), the first woman to land a 900 in competition seven years ago. "We have gone from doing small spins to bigger spins, and the amplitude has just increased. Everything about women's snowboarding is progressing at such a fast level, it's exciting to be a part of the main movement, which I think is in the U.S."

Olympic gold medalist Shaun White (Carlsbad, CA) sparked a movement all his own this season when he brought the double cork into the halfpipe, ratcheting up the benchmark for medal contenders with the Double McTwist 1260.

"For me, every single season I kind of look at what I've done on the previous one and think of how I can beat it," White said. "Usually it just comes from within. I have to get inspired, I have to get motivated, and I really have to have a game plan.

"It's been an amazing finisher for my run," White said of the Double McTwist 1260. "It's something that I'm proud to say is the best trick I've ever done."

When asked if he considered giving his invention a new name, White said he's been contemplating the "Tomahawk," after a steak he ate in Aspen, or the "Double Eagle."

"Those sound equally delicious," he joked.

Besides helping to progress the sport in the pipe, 2002 gold medalist and possible favorite Kelly Clark (Mt. Snow, VT) did a little growing of her own since winning gold in 2002, taking a disappointing fourth in Torino and finding that, to her surprise, it wasn't the end of the world.

"Having made it through both of those Olympic experiences and knowing that either way, I'm just fine, I think it's great heading into my third Olympics because it creates a lot of freedom," Clark said.

She'll face stiff competition from U.S. teammates Hannah Teter (Belmont, VT), the defending Olympic champion, and Gretchen Bleiler (Aspen, CO), who is hoping to improve on silver in 2006 by parlaying her hometown X Games victory last weekend into Olympic glory.

"It was the first competition this season where I actually rode to my potential," Bleiler said. "It felt really good, and now I have even better confidence heading into Cypress. I know what I'm capable of, and I know that I'm capable of more."

Joining White on the men's squad are three more athletes capable of previously unimaginable tricks - Greg Bretz (Mammoth Lakes, CA), Scotty Lago (Seabrook, NH) and Louie Vito (Sandy, UT), who expanded the profile of the sport last year with an appearance on ABC's "Dances with the Stars."

Vito said the TV gig more than prepared him for the Olympic spotlight.

"Going out every week and having to do a dance I had no confidence in, wearing the clothes that I probably wouldn't even wear on Halloween, and doing it in front of a live audience and in front of 22 million viewers… you go into snowboarding, which I am comfortable doing, I'm comfortable wearing what I'm wearing and doing something that I know I'm actually pretty good at, it makes it a lot easier," he said.

Training in the pipe begins this Sunday at Cypress Mountain. The men's halfpipe event will take place at Cypress Mountain next Wednesday, with the finals scheduled for 7:15 PT. The women follow on Thursday with the medal round set to begin at 4 p.m. local time.