Rosey Fletcher
{{short description|American snowboarder}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2025}}
{{MedalTableTop}}
{{MedalSport | Women's snowboarding }}
{{MedalCountry | the {{USA}} }}
{{MedalCompetition | Olympic Games }}
{{MedalBronze | 2006 Turin | Parallel giant slalom }}
{{MedalCompetition | FIS Snowboarding World Championships }}
{{MedalSilver | 1999 Berchtesgaden | Parallel giant slalom }}
{{MedalSilver | 2001 Madonna di Campiglio | Parallel giant slalom }}
{{MedalBottom}}
Gabrielle Rose "Rosey" Fletcher (born 30 November 1975, in Anchorage, Alaska) is an American three-time Olympian snowboarder. She competed at the 1998 Winter Olympics, the 2002 Winter Olympics, and the 2006 Winter Olympics. Fletcher won the Olympic bronze medal in the 2006 women's Parallel giant slalom event.
Early life
Fletcher grew up in Girdwood, Alaska.{{Cite web |title="Candidates for Overall Athlete Board Seat" |url=https://usskiandsnowboard.org/sites/default/files/files-resources/files/2021/Candidates%20for%20Overall%20Athlete%20Election%20%26%20Nomination%20for%20Board%20Seat%20.pdf |access-date=21 June 2025 |website=US Ski and Snowboard.org}}{{Cite web|url=https://crudemag.podbean.com/e/ep-131-all-or-nothing-with-rosey-fletcher/|title=EP 131 All or nothing with Rosey Fletcher |website=Crude Conversations}} She started skiing cross-country, then moved to alpine racing, GS, and Super-G.{{Cite web|url=https://www.mountainzone.com/olympics/nagano/fletcher.html|title=1998 Olympic Athlete Bios: Snowboarder Rosey Fletcher|website=Mountain Zone}} Then she tried snowboarding and focused on GS. In 2007, she was studying to compete her degree at Eastern Oregon University.{{Cite journal |last=Fletcher |first=Rosey |date=4 November 2007 |title=FletcherJob Title & Company: Community Development Specialist |journal=Alaska Journal of Commerce (Anchorage, AK) |volume=364 |issue=1 |via=Alaska Journal}}
Career
= Olympics =
Fletcher competed at the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, and the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy.{{Cite web|url=https://alaskasportshall.org/inductee/rosey-fletcher/|title=Rosey Fletcher|website=Alaska Sports Hall Of Fame}} Fletcher won the Olympic bronze medal in the 2006 women's Parallel giant slalom event.
Arriving as a favourite in 1998 at Nagano and in 2002 at Salt Lake City, she crashed in 1998 and suffered a near-crash in 2002 during the preliminaries.{{Cite web |title=Rosey Fletcher |url=https://alaskasportshall.org/inductee/rosey-fletcher/ |access-date=2025-06-21 |website=Alaska Sports Hall of Fame |language=en-US}} Going into the 2002 games at Utah’s Park City, she was ranked 8th in the world. In Turin, at the 2006 Winter Games, she was 30 but with no pressure to perform she advanced to the semifinals. But later crashed, and was left fighting for a bronze medal which she easily won. “I was so devastated after Salt Lake I thought my life was going to end. It was one of those life lessons, realizing that life’s a lot bigger than this five-ring circus,” was her quote after the 2002 loss.
= Snowboarding career =
Fletcher also won seven US national championships, two silver medals in parallel giant slalom at the 1999 and 2001 World Championships, eight World Cup victories, and had 20 World Cup podium finishes. She was on the USA Snowboard Team for ten years.
One of her first podiums in the World Cup came in December 1996 in giant slalom at Sestriere, Italy and at Sun Peak BC at Canada in the same month. Her first victory in a World Cup, came in the next year in 1997 at Bardonechhia, Italy in giant slalom. She bagged two more FIS victories in giant slalom and slalom at Mammoth Mountain, USA. From 1996 to 2006, she won 44 podium places in all championships including World Cups, World Championships and FIS events like Nor Am Cups.{{Cite web |last=Federation |first=International Ski and Snowboard |title=FIS {{!}} Rosey FLETCHER - Athlete Biography - Snowboard |url=https://www.fis-ski.com/DB/general/athlete-biography.html?sectorcode=SB&seasoncode=&competitorid=17509&type=result&categorycode=&sort=&place=&disciplinecode=&position=&limit=200 |access-date=2025-06-21 |website=www.fis-ski.com |language=en}}
=Litigation=
In February 2023, Fletcher and other former U.S. Ski & Snowboard (USSS) team members sued coach Peter Foley, along with the national federation, its former CEO, and the USOPC, in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles for sex trafficking, harassment, and enabling and covering up repeated acts of sexual assault and misconduct, alleging that the defendants "conspired and acted in concert with one another to commit unlawful acts."{{Cite web|url=https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/23597540-rosey-fletcher-erin-omalley-callan-chythlook-sifsof-vs-foley-shaw-usss-usopc|title=Rosey Fletcher|website=documentcloud.org}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.espn.com/olympics/story/_/id/35582364/snowboarders-sue-ex-coach-peter-foley-federation-usopc-sex-trafficking-coverup|title=Olympians sue USOPC, others for sex trafficking|author=Alyssa Roenigk and Tisha Thompson|date=February 3, 2023|website=ESPN}} They alleged that Foley exploited his position of trust to "coerce sexual acts through force, manipulation, emotional abuse, intimidation, and retaliation." Fletcher said that Foley sexually assaulted her at a U.S. team camp when she was 19, and again at a post-race event at the Olympics. Foley and the other defendants asked the court to throw out the lawsuit; a hearing is set for October 2023.{{Cite web|url=https://thebrunswicknews.com/sports/national_sports/former-team-usa-snowboard-coach-peter-foley-suspended-10-years-for-sexual-misconduct/article_2334f55d-29b1-5587-9315-bf29df8cdcef.html|title=Former Team USA snowboard coach Peter Foley suspended 10 years for sexual misconduct|author=Bill Shaikin|date=August 8, 2023|website=The Brunswick News}}
Separately, on August 8, 2023, after an 18-month investigation, SafeSport suspended Foley for ten years for sexual misconduct.{{Cite web|url=https://uscenterforsafesport.org/response-and-resolution/centralized-disciplinary-database/|title=Centralized Disciplinary Database |publisher= U.S. Center for SafeSport}}Les Carpenter (8 August 2023). [https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/olympics/2023/08/08/peter-foley-suspended-us-snowboard-coach/ "Olympics; Former U.S. snowboard coach Peter Foley suspended after sexual misconduct probe,"] The Washington Post.{{Cite web|url=https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/olympics/2023/08/08/safesport-suspends-former-usa-snowboarding-coach-peter-foley/70555789007/|title=SafeSport suspends ex-US Olympic snowboarding coach Peter Foley after sexual misconduct probe|website=USA TODAY|author=Tom Schad|date=August 8, 2023}}
= Retired life =
Fletcher became a community development specialist in her hometown of Anchorage in Alaska, after retirement.{{Cite web |date=2006 |title=Rosey FLETCHER - Biography |url=https://www.olympics.com/en/athletes/rosey-fletcher |access-date=21 June 2025 |website=Olympics.com}}
= Honours =
- On March 5, 2006, in Soldotna, Alaska, Fletcher received the honor of lighting the cauldron in the opening ceremony of the Kenai Peninsula 2006 Arctic Winter Games.{{cite Sports-Reference|url=https://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/athletes/fl/rosey-fletcher-1.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200417224746/https://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/athletes/fl/rosey-fletcher-1.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=2020-04-17|title=Gabrielle Rose "Rosey" Fletcher}}
- Fletcher was inducted into the Alaska Sports Hall of Fame in 2010.{{Cite web |date=26 February 2010 |title=4 to be inducted into Alaska Sports Hall of Fame |url=https://www.adn.com/iditarod/article/4-be-inducted-alaska-sports-hall-fame/2010/02/25/ |access-date=21 June 2025 |website=Anchorage Daily News}}
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- {{FIS snowboarder|17509}}
- {{Olympics.com|rosey-fletcher}}
- {{Olympedia}}
- [https://www.instagram.com/roseyfletcher/?hl=en Instagram page]
- [https://www.roseyfletcher.com/about roseyfletcher.com]
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fletcher, Rosey}}
Category:American female snowboarders
Category:Eastern Oregon University alumni
Category:Medalists at the 2006 Winter Olympics
Category:Snowboarders at the 1998 Winter Olympics
Category:Snowboarders at the 2002 Winter Olympics
Category:Snowboarders at the 2006 Winter Olympics
Category:Sportspeople from Anchorage, Alaska
Category:Olympic bronze medalists for the United States in snowboarding