Comments (0) BEST COLORADO OLYMPIAN - 2006
Gretchen Bleiler
Sleek and blond, she looked lovely in her February 2004 photo spread for FHM Magazine, and she clearly had a ball as an honorary starter for this year's Daytona 500. But 25-year-old Gretchen Bleiler, a native of Ohio who's lived in Aspen since she was ten, is at her best in the half-pipe, throwing spins, flipping and getting good air. Prior to the 2006 Winter Olympics, she suffered a nasty black eye while perfecting her signature move, an inverted spinning trick called, ominously, the "crippler" -- but that didn't keep her from winning silver in Torino, one of four medals won by American women in the snowboarding events.
