Barbing boarders talk tough on podium plans

The snowboard halfpipe course on Cypress Mountain is groomed ahead of the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics February 10, 2010.

VANCOUVER (Reuters) - Canadian and American snowboard rivalry boiled over Wednesday ahead of their Vancouver Winter Olympic showdown on Cypress Mountain when athletes openly traded barbs.

While hundreds of workers were pulling together to get the melting mountain venue ready for snowboard cross races scheduled for February 15 and 16, the North American neighbors were staking their claims to the Olympic podium.

"Everyone says that Canada will own the podium," said American Nate Holland, mocking Canada's $110 million "Own the Podium" program designed to put the host nation atop the Vancouver medal table.

"That's fine by us. We'll just rent it for the month."

Consistently voted among the world's most livable cities but with some of Canada's highest real estate prices, Canadian medal hope Drew Neilson shot back that U.S. snowboarders can only dream of taking up residence atop the Vancouver podium.

"That rent will be unaffordable as far as I'm concerned," he declared. "That's American confidence for sure but this is our yard.

"The Americans have a strong team no doubt about that but so do the French, there's lots of guys who can medal in our sport.

"But I'm confident our team here can take home the gold medals -- myself included."

(Editing by Jon Bramley)