Mitchell Brown (22), Snowboarder
Lives: Wanaka (born Dunedin).
Event: The men's halfpipe is performed in a U-shaped ditch with athletes performing aerial tricks as they negotiate their way down the walls to the bottom.
Background: Brown, older brother of fellow Olympian Kendall Brown, competed at the 2006 Olympics, finishing 25th.
Brown won the New Zealand Open in 2007.
At last year's Winter Games World Cup halfpipe event, Brown competed with a broken wrist sustained 10 days earlier.
He finished 36th and did not make the semifinals.
Brown has competed on the World Cup, Europa Cup and Nor-Am Cup circuits this season.
Last month, Brown won both his runs at an FIS Nor-AM Continental Cup halfpipe event in Calgary to keep his Vancouver prospects alive and followed up with an eighth at the Canada World Cup in January.
Chances: Brown is ranked 83 in the world and has battled ongoing injuries for the past two years.
If performing to his full potential, he should be able to improve on his 2006 result.
Race day: February 17, at Whistler.
