The man known as ‘iPod’ has been one of the few who’s been able to go toe to toe with Shaun White in the past few yeas and possible the only man to get the American truly worried. As the inventor of the YOLO flip he’s not afraid of pushing the boundaries of Halfpipe riding. Iouri Podladchikov has said that he hasn’t had the chance to prepare anything new for Sochi but he’s still got the bag of tricks to bring home gold.

Podladchikov was born in Moscow and represented Russia when he competed in Turin in 2006, however he won’t be donning the red, white and blue of Mother Russia this time round as he will in the red of Switzerland. It remains to be seen what kind of reception he’ll get from the Russian people.