HARD ROAD TO TURIN JEWELL TOOK OVERCOMING ADVERSITY TO A NEW LEVEL TO REACH OLYMPICS.

Byline: STEVE DILBECK

SESTRIERE, Italy - Tyler Jewell is not a snowboarder, he's a mini-series. A living melodrama. He's hardships and redemption, sacrifice and self-fulfillment.

Jewell has lived in his car, on a ranch and in a tent. Survived on Power Bars and hospital food. Dug ditches, hawked sausages at a fair, struggled as a caterer.

Tyler Jewell has done what he could, where he could, all to keep chasing his dream.

And if it did not have quite the golden finish Wednesday to add perfect symmetry to his Tolstoyesque tale, it was still a triumph, still the kind of Olympic story often overshadowed by medals and personalities.

``I'm not like a snowboard bum,'' Jewell said. ``More like someone following his dream.''

His Byzantine journey finally led him to the Winter Games and Wednesday's running of the snowboard parallel giant slalom. The only American in the event, he finished 11th.

``I can look myself in the mirror,'' he said.

What looks back is someone who's had a wild and unusual lifestyle, even by snowboarding's counter-culture standards. He has been challenged, and then challenged again. Survived by his wits, with the help of friends, through amazing determination, through official grievances and just plain grit.

Jewell turned 29 on Tuesday, but has already jammed more life and adventure into his young existence than most will experience in a full lifetime, in several lifetimes.

He is not a member of the U.S. Ski Team, not sponsored by his own governing body. He went to Oregon to try out for the U.S. team three years ago, arriving late to discover he was its No. 6 rider; they sponsor five snowboarders in parallel giant slalom.

Jewell said he stayed and kept training, living in his car. He said a friend, Lisa Kosglow, sent him a giant box of nutrition bars.

``I lived on those Power Bars three times a day for two weeks,'' he said.

Over the next three years, he took what jobs he could to survive, to keep riding, to keep his focus on the 2006 Winter Games.

Later, another friend, Josh Lang, got him a job selling sausages at the New Mexico state fair in Albuquerque.

``I worked 18 hours a day,'' he said. ``My hands were numb. I got Carpal Tunnel Syndrome.

``I put a fan behind the grill so it blew the smell right into the food tent. I made $5,000 in two weeks, enough to support myself and my training the whole summer. You have to get creative to make some money to stay in this sport.''

There was another friend, Patrick McCavenaugh, he was speaking to on the phone about his ordeal.

``He said, 'Give me a couple of minutes. I'll call you right back,' '' Jewell said. ``He called me back and said there was a plane ticket to Chicago waiting for me at the airport. I went to work for him helping put on five Cadillac golf clinics.''

And there was still another friend from Maine, Kevin Mahaney - an Olympic silver medalist in sailing at the '92 Olympics in Barcelona - who recognized the disadvantage Jewell was under.

Mahaney sent cash.

``He said, 'I believe in you. Go buy yourself the best equipment,' '' Jewell said.

His vagabond lifestyle is not the story of an uneducated man. He graduated from Boston College in 1999. He played lacrosse for the Golden Eagles.

It was then the 5-foot-9, 185-pound former top junior rider decided to resume snowboarding, to begin his incredible journey.

Last summer, he lived in a tent in Steamboat Springs, Colo.

``It was great,'' Jewell said. ``I didn't watch any TV, just the stars and the sunset.

``I went to the public libraries, and ate my meals at the hospital. It only cost $2.50 and you got meat and potatoes. You can't find a deal like that anywhere else in Steamboat.''

Jewell now has one sponsor, Welch's Grape Juice, based in Concord, Mass., about eight miles from his hometown of Sudbury.

This season, since no U.S. rider placed in the top four at the World Cup in a pre-Olympic year, the team earned only one spot for Turin. The federation was left to select its rider based on the average of the best two rides.

The U.S. federation selected Chris Klug, the bronze medalist from Salt Lake City and liver transplant survivor. Jewell filed a grievance challenging the decision, claiming it was incorrectly based on finishes instead of points.

He won, and against overwhelming odds, was an Olympian.

``It's cool to see what I went through, what I was willing to do to get here,'' he said.

``I followed my own destiny. That's the coolest thing. I followed my heart.''

When he raced Wednesday, he wore a red bandana around his neck. It was not an idle choice. It was a dedication, a remembrance of a friend, Welles Crowther.

Crowther worked on the 104th floor on south tower of the World Trade Center as an equities dealer. He was working there on Sept. 11, 2001 when an airplane ripped into the side of the skyscraper.

``He got out, but went back in and pulled out maybe 10 people or so, I don't know,'' Jewell said. ``He had a red bandana in his pocket, so he became known as the `Red Bandana Man.' I'm wearing it in his memory.''

Crowther's body was found months later next to several firemen in what was believed to be a command post.

Jewell would have loved to have ended this story with a stirring victory Wednesday, yet seems to understand there was triumph in his simply being here.

``I just came out and followed my heart, through thick and thin, and everything worked out,'' he said.

``For me, that's what makes it worth it - the struggle.''

He's not done, either, but plans to continue riding, more to come in the Jewell mini-series.

CAPTION(S):

photo

Photo:

(color) After overcoming many obstacles to get to the Turin Olympics, Tyler Jewell of the U.S. finished 11th in the snowboard parallel giant slalom on Wednesday.

Diether Endlicher/Associated Press