Ludlow's Hannah Teter Takes Second In U. S. Open Snowboarding Championships

While Fellow Vermonter Kelly Clark Wins The Title LUDLOW, VT. - Belmont native and Black River High School graduate Hannah Teter already has a long list of snowboarding accomplishments, including capturing a gold medal at the 2006 Winter Olympic Games in Torin and winning the 2004 Winter X Games in Salt Lake City, but there is still something special about coming home to compete in Vermont.

Teter recently participated in the women's halfpipe event at U. S. Open Snowboarding Championships at Stratton Mountain and grabbed second place overall, with fellow Vermonter Kelly Clark of West Dover, Vermont taking first place for the second year in a row. Clark finished with a score of 94.95, followed by Teter at 88.10 and Ohio's Gretchen Bleiler at 86.30.

It was one of the most exciting women's finals of the season as Kelly took a lead from the first run, before Teter went big on her second run, starting out with a huge method followed by a frontside 900 stalefish, a back-side 540 melon grab and a front-side 720 stalefish. However, Kelly kept topping her own scores, earning the best result with her victory lap. However, it's not about always winning for Teter.

The 24-year-old Okemo Mountain School alum is one of five siblings growing up in Belmont, which is only a few miles west of Ludlow, and older brothers Abe and Elijah also competed on the U. S. Snowboarding Team. By age 15, Hannah was the World Junior Halfpipe champion and started competing on the FIS Snowboard World Cup circuit in 2002, finishing fourth in her first World Cup event in Chili.

Since then, Teter has six World Cup victories to her credit , has won bronze(2003)and silver(2004)medals in the Winter X Games, a victory at the Lake Tahoe Grand Prix in 2009 and of course, a gold medal at the 2009 Burton Australian Open, an Olympic gold medal at Turin and a Silver at the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics. Her Olympic gold medal also earned her the United States Olympic Committee Sportswoman of the Year award, as well as ESPN Espy Award for "best action sports female" in 2006.

However, Teter's accomplishments go far beyond snowboarding, as she is actively involved charity, philanthropy and business. In 2008 she founded a charity called "Hannah's Gold", which raises money through the sales of Vermont Maple Syrup. In partnership with charity organization World Vision, sales from Hannah's Gold assists in supporting the village of Kirindon, Kenya through building schools and digging fresh water wells. In fact, Teter also donated all of her 2009 prize money to the Kirindon program.

In 2010 Teter launched a new charity called "Sweet Cheeks", which donates 40% of the sales from an exclusive line of underwear to partner with Children International, an organization which works to feed children living in extreme poverty around the world. She also sponsors children in Honduras and the Philippines through Children's International,

Indeed, Hannah Teter is not your average snowboarder. Why else would you have an ice cream named for you? In 2009 Ben & Jerry's of Vermont created a flavorful ice cream in honor of Hannah called Teter's "Maple Blonde", a maple ice cream with blonde brownie chunks. Yes, when you've got your own ice cream flavor, you know you've really made it!
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