Snowboarding and mountain-bike legend Shaun Palmer is headed for the Olympic Games in Italy this February. Palmer qualified in a Boardercross event in Austria yesterday, even after a crash during the race. His second-place finish in the event should be good enough to qualify the Lake Tahoe native into the Olympics.

Palmer, a passionate fan of motocross, had a tumultuous year in 2005, and his focus on the Olympics has helped him get back on track.

"Man, I wanted to race the motocross nationals so bad last year, but one thing kept going wrong after another," Palmer said. "I finally had enough, and I just snapped."

Shaun was speaking of a near-fatal overdose of drugs and alcohol that left him unconscious in his home last June.

Since then, Palmer has re-focused on getting back to the sport he helped create: snowboarding. Palm will compete in the Winter X Games in Colorado in January and then the Olympics in Torino, Italy. He will be a favorite to win the gold in the Boardercross events at both.
 
What are his plans after the Olympics?
 
"I'm going racing, man," he said, talking of another run at the National motocross series. "Only this time, I'm doing it my way and I'm going to go out and just have fun and not get all stressed out about it."
 
Good Luck, Shaun.