Xavier De Le Rue may as well be a fictional character, and could in fact be a member of the X-Men. But in reality he’s a legendary snowboarder who recently represented France at the olympic level in boardercross. He arrived in Vancouver as a favorite but was unluckily knocked out early in the quarter final round. Xavier is an amazing all round rider and may be most famous in snowboarding for being alive after an avalanche, documented in Standard Films 2008 release Aesthetica, washed him 3 km down an entire mountain face in the french alps. Last week he competed in a big mountain comp in Squaw Valley and won. Here’s his winning run on youtube