Marquette native snowboarding overseas

Lahti, Finland is the site of the 2013 ‘Stars of the Stadium’ snowboarding competition. Among the field of 20 competitors is just one American- Ian Thorley from Marquette.

Thorley arrived in Finland earlier today in order to prepare for the competition. Last week Thorley competed in the Red Bull Nanshan Open in China, where he finished in 13th place.

Ian has his sights not only set on a good showing in Finland, but he is working towards his ultimate goal of representing the United States in the 2014 Winter Olympics. Thorley has started mandatory drug testing with the U.S. Anti Doping Agency as a possible candidate to represent the U.S. on the Olympic team.

The United States will have its first ever Slopestyle Snowboard Olympic Team next February in Russia.

The 2013 ‘Stars of the Stadium’ competition begins Saturday at 5am eastern time.