Rothesay native Mark Fawcett has played a premier role in elevating the sport of snowboarding from relative obscurity to Olympic status. What began in 1985 as a trip downhill on an piece of plastic with a skateboard on top would yield over the next seventeen years, thirty-eight World Cup podium performances including fourteen gold medals, three first place finishes in the United States Open, and Olympic appearances in Nagano, Japan and Salt Lake City, Utah. In 1997, he was named the International Snowboarding Federation’s "Snowboarder of the Year" worldwide. Since retiring from competition in 2002, he has hosted and co-produced the television show Sacred Ride and in 2005 was named assistant coach of the Canadian Alpine Snowboarding Team.In 2006, he attended his third Olympics in Turin, Italy as head coach of the Canadian team, and is preparing for a fourth Olympic adventure in Vancouver in 2010. Enrolled in the New Brunswick Sports Hall of Fame, June 9, 2007.