Graham Watanabe

{{Short description|American snowboarder (born 1982)}}

{{Use mdy dates|date=September 2023}}

{{MedalTableTop | medals =

{{MedalSport | Men's snowboarding }}

{{MedalCountry | the {{USA}} }}

{{MedalCompetition | Winter X Games }}

{{MedalSilver | 2009 Aspen | Snowboard Cross }}

|image=LG Snowboard FIS World Cup (5435317853) (Graham Watanabe).jpg|caption=Watanabe at Telluride in 2009}}

Graham Watanabe (born March 19, 1982) is an American snowboarder who has competed since 1996. He won three events in snowboardcross between 2004 and 2009.

At the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Watanabe finished 31st in the snowboard cross event. His best finish at the FIS Snowboard World Championships was sixth in the snowboard cross event at Gangwon in 2009.

It was announced on 26 January 2010, that Watanabe made the US team for the 2010 Winter Olympics. Although Watanabe did not qualify for the quarter-finals in Vancouver, he described his Olympic experience, when he said, "Try to imagine Pegasus mating with a unicorn and the creature that they birth; I somehow tame it and ride it into the sky in the clouds and sunshine and rainbows. That's what it feels like."{{cite news |title=Pegasus rising: snowboarder Watanabe a star wordsmith |url=http://newsblogs.chicagotribune.com/sports_globetrotting/2010/02/pegasus-rising-snowboarder-watanabe-a-star-wordsmith.html |accessdate=2 October 2012 |newspaper=Chicago Tribune |date=11 February 2010}}

He was a subject in an episode of BYU Television's The Generations Project documentary series in 2012.{{cite web |title=The Generations Project – Graham |url=http://byutv.org/watch/0d2330e1-e88f-4509-9962-237f6c49b022 |access-date=2012-10-02 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130414101843/http://byutv.org/watch/0d2330e1-e88f-4509-9962-237f6c49b022 |archive-date=2013-04-14 |url-status=dead }}