Why are Olympic snowboarders taping their pants? Athletes blame the course

MILAN, Metropolitan City of Milan — The world’s top snowboarders took on the 2026 Winter Olympics slopestyle course on Wednesday, with some in the women’s event sporting an interesting fashion choice during their runs.

Numerous snowboarders made the decision to wrap tape around their pants during the women’s slopestyle final and previously during the men’s free ski big air final. NBC Commentator Todd Richards said the decision stemmed from complaints over how the 2026 Olympics course was designed.

“It’s a testament to how slow this course is,” Richards said during Wednesday’s broadcast. “They’re taping those pants to create less drag coming in to the third and final jump. That’s been the main complaint on both the women’s and men’s side of things over the past few days.”

The course was built in a way that has a lot of flat ground right before the final jump, which takes a lot of the needed speed away from the athletes. The issue was so persistent and caused so many wipe-outs during the competition that Richards called the course the biggest competitor at the event, effectively handicapping the athletes’ skills.

“This snow is running so slow right now,” Richards said. “The only thing on all of these women’s minds is how am I going to find a little extra speed in these jumps.”

Other snowboarders at Wednesday’s event and previous competitions made another unique choice, this time involving the number bibs they’re required to wear over their torsos.

Athletes at both the slopestyle and the men’s big air event tucked one side of the bib under their armpit. This practice is also more functional than fashionable.

“Sometimes those bibs can fly up in your eyes. That’s very, very dangerous. So a lot of the riders will tuck it under their arm,” CBC Olympics snowboarding expert Craig McMorris said during the 2022 Winter Olympics in China.