Snowboarding Champion and Pioneer
By Stacy Holand
The Foundation first entered the life of Gretchen Bleiler on a cold night in New Jersey the same night that the world of snowboarding entered mine. I was at my first professional snowboarding event in my life trying to learn the in and outs and getting to know some of the top female riders. I met a few that night, Kelly Clark, Lindsey Jacobellis, Molly Aguirre, and had a blast watching them shred the pipe. I was just about to call it a night when I saw Gretchen celebrating with her family, at the conclusion of this event she was officially named to the 2006 Olympic team. I figured what the hey…I went over there introduced myself and the rest is history. Since then, I’ve been hooked on snowboarding almost as much as Gretchen has been hooked on the Women’s Sports Foundation.
Over the past years, Gretchen has been greatly involved in the Foundation, attending our Fundraising events in Los Angeles and New York, donating auction items, giving feedback on how we can make things better for other athletes and most importantly, just spreading the word about the Women’s Sports Foundation. One of the greatest things for us to hear is that an athlete has heard about us from another athlete and what a great organization we are. That is greatest form of flattery for us. And year in and year out Gretchen has done that. With her actions, she has shown her passion and determination to make things better for fellow female athletes that don’t have the same opportunities as her and I know more then anything with the way Gretchen’s flies out of the pipe…the sky is the limit!
To see what amazing accomplishments Gretchen has made in the pipe, check out her Women's Sports Foundation bio.