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Bleiler up for another award

Aspen Times StaffAspen, CO Colorado

Local snowboarder and Olympic medalist Gretchen Bleiler is a nominee in the “Best Action Sports Female” category for this year’s Teen Choice Awards.The show will air live at 6 p.m. Aug. 26 on Fox. Fans can help determine the winners by voting online now at http://www.fox.com/teenchoice.”There’s no audience more important to the action sports world than teens,” Bleiler said in a U.S. Snowboarding news release. “They are some of our biggest, most knowledgeable fans, so it’s a huge honor to be nominated for their award.”Bleiler’s teammate, friend and rival Hannah Teter is up for the same honor.At the 2006 Winter Olympics, Teter spun to gold in the women’s halfpipe final while Bleiler took the silver.After the Olympics, the two found themselves paired together as they made the rounds on the national talk show circuit. Both also served as starters at the 2006 Daytona 500.Bleiler earned Female Snowboarder of the Year honors at the inaugural Action Sports Awards in December, while the U.S. Olympic Committee named Teter the 2006 Sportswoman of the Year.Bleiler kept the competitive momentum rolling last winter with two podiums in the U.S. Snowboarding Grand Prix and second-place finishes at the U.S. Open and the Winter X Games. Last month, she won the Abominable Snow Jam halfpipe final at Oregon’s Mount Hood.Teter returned from offseason knee surgery last winter and struggled to regain her winning form. Since the Olympics, she has stayed busy promoting “Hannah’s Gold” – a line of grade-A Vermont maple syrup she created which donates all its profits to poverty-stricken children in Africa through a partnership with World Vision.The other nominees are freeskier Kristi Leskinen, surfer Lisa Andersen and wakeboarder Dallas Friday.