Karine Ruby

Who was Karine Ruby?

Karine Ruby was a French snowboarder and Olympic champion. She won a gold medal at the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano. She received a silver medal at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City.

Ruby had achieved significant success as a snowboarder, recognized as the world champion on six occasions and winning more than 65 Snowboarding World Cup events overall to accompany her two Olympic medals, earning her the description by The New York Times as "the most decorated female snowboarder in the world".

Ruby won the giant slalom event in the snowboarding competition at the 1998 Winter Olympics held in Nagano, Japan, overcoming severe weather conditions to win the first Olympic gold medal awarded in the event to a woman. She finished a combined 1.74 seconds behind Isabelle Blanc in the parallel giant slalom in snowboarding competition at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, an event that the two French snowboarders had dedicated to the memory of teammate Régine Cavagnoud, who had died in a 2001 training accident.

Ruby came in third place to win a bronze medal in snowboardcross at the Winter X Games IX held in Aspen, Colorado in January 2005.