Tara Dakides

Tara Dakides (born August 20, 1975) is an American

Mammoth Lakes, California

Career

As a child, she took part in gymnastics and skateboarding. When she was a teenager, she branched out into several other more dangerous sports and became involved in motocross, surfing, mountain- and snow-based sports. This variety of sports experience gave her an edge in the X Games competitions.

At the

Winter X Games in 1999, Dakides won a silver medal in slopestyle and a gold in big air. In 2000, she won two gold medals, one in slopestyle with a combined score of 88.50 after three runs, the other in big air with a combined score of 78.00. In 2001, she won another big air gold medal with a score of 89.00, and finished seventh in slopestyle. At the 2001 Sims World Championships

, she was first in slopestyle and fifth in big air At the 2002 X Games, she won her third slopestyle gold medal. She also received EXPN's Snowboarder of the Year award.

In May 2003, Dakides participated in the Gumball 3000 rally race. She continues to race in motocross, shifter carts in addition to racing in the Baja 1000 competition.

Media

She has appeared as a cover model for various sports magazines and has appeared in various video games. In 2001, she was on the cover of Sports Illustrated and was named "The Coolest Sports Woman in 2001".

Dakides was featured on

Universal Orlando Resort in Orlando, Florida and was dubbed MXC Almost Live. At the end of the episode, Dakides successfully ran the Log Drop after being challenged by Tony Hawk

.

During her appearance on the Late Show with David Letterman in 2004, Dakides attempted to perform a stunt outside the Ed Sullivan Theater but fell 15 feet from a ramp while not wearing a helmet. She was taken to hospital and required stitches on the back of her head. She recovered and returned to the show for an interview a few days later.

Dakides is a spokesperson for the Surfrider Foundation, a non-profit environmental organization.

Dakides was nominated for the

surfer Layne Beachley. She was ranked #90 on FHM's 100 Sexiest Women of 2004.^[1] She was featured in episode 62 of MTV Cribs

.

Dakides appeared as the captain of the Denver Hurlers on

Gossip Girl star Ed Westwick and Felicity Jones

.

References

^ "FreeJose.com". FHM 100 Sexiest Women of 2004. Archived from the original on January 19, 2007. Retrieved January 31, 2007.

This biographical article related to snowboarding in the United States is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

[freejose2004-1] "FreeJose.com". FHM 100 Sexiest Women of 2004. Archived from the original on January 19, 2007. Retrieved January 31, 2007.

[1]