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Lipscomb out of retirement

Snowboarder has new clarity and is serious about Sochi 2014 bid
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RETIREMENT RESCINDED Pemberton resident Crispin Lipscomb knows what it will take to qualify to compete in the snowboard halfpipe event at the Olympic Winter Games in Sochi and he's going for it. Photo submitted

Crispin Lipscomb didn't make it into the 2010 Olympic Winter Games. But he is coming out of retirement to make a serious bid to make it to the 2014 Games in Sochi.

He announced his retirement from competitive snowboarding in January of 2010 after the death of a friend, but now has found renewed interest in snowboard halfpipe.

The Pemberton resident has been coaching Katie Tsuyuki of Squamish, another Olympic hopeful, for some time and said from his office that coaching is one of the inspirations for him to get back on his board.

"We've been running kind of a successful parallel program training (Tsuyuki) and preparing her for her Olympic dream and in the process I've been doing learning through a mentorship process, so I've been doing my own development riding alongside," he said.

Lipscomb has qualified to travel to New Zealand for an Olympic qualifying event there Aug. 22 to 25.

He said he's been given a second chance at the halfpipe. His second chance has come after studying Buddhism, spending some time in Korean temples and working with some young Korean snowboarders.

"Who gets a second chance at anything?" asked the Olympian who competed at the 2006 Games in Turin.

He said now at the age of 34, he has shifted from a youthful egocentric approach to sport to focusing on what it will take to overcome the physical and mental barriers to compete at the international level.

"This is standing on a sport philosophy of developing the technique, taking the confidence from the process so that the outcome is inevitable," said Lipscomb. "I'm much more calculated and careful and I think it is a more rewarded process."

He said he's grateful of the opportunity he has to compete again at an international level.

In advance of his trip to New Zealand, he and Tsuyuki will spend time training at Mt. Hood. The Canadian Olympic halfpipe team will be announced in January.