Born in 1987, Vermonter Hannah Teter is a champion snowboarder, winning a gold medal at the 2006 Winter Olympic Games and a silver at the 2010 Winter Olympics. Teter's fame extends beyond the snow: In 2008, she started her own charity, Hannah's Gold, to raise money for a Kenyan village. In 2010, she made headlines when she posed in Sports Illustrated's "Swimsuit Issue."

Olympian Hannah Teter grew up with four older brothers. "My favorite thing was bouncing on a trampoline," she later said of her childhood to Sports Illustrated. Wanting to keep up with her brothers, Teter took up snowboarding around the age of 8, and soon demonstrated a great aptitude for the sport. In 2002, Teter captured the championship at the 2002 Junior Worlds, where she also became the first woman to land a 900 in halfpipe competition.

In 2003, Teter became the youngest member of the U.S Snowboarding Team. That same year, she won both the Vans Triple Crown halfpipe title and a silver medal at the Winter X Games. During the 2003-04 season, Teter earned four World Cup halfpipe victories, and was named champion of both the U.S. Snowboard Overall Grand Prix halfpipe competition and the X Games superpipe competition. In 2004, the North American Snowsports Journalists Association named Teter its "Competitor of the Year"—marking the first time the award was presented to a snowboarder.

Teter was named champion of the Vans Cup in 2005. That same year, she took the bronze medal at both the World Snowboard Championships and the Winter X Games superpipe. At the 2006 World Cup season opener in Chile, she claimed an unprecedented two wins on the same day. Teter went on to win gold in the halfpipe competition at the 2006 Winter Games in Torino, Italy, at the age of 18.

With her gold medal win, Teter enjoyed newfound fame and celebrity status. She appeared on such television shows as Late Night with David Letterman and waved the green flag at the Daytona 500. Teter also used her fame to help others. With Hannah's Gold, her own line of maple syrup, she has been raising funds to help children in need in Kenya. The snowboarder has also supported a number of other charities over the years, including Boarding for Breast Cancer.

At the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver, Canada, Teter's strong performance in the halfpipe landed her a silver medal. She seemed to step away from her sport the following year, choosing to compete in few events, but still managed to win silver at the 2011 U.S. Open. In 2012, she took the bronze medal at the X Games.

Teter had some mixed results leading up to the 2014 Winter Olympics. In January 2013, she placed ninth in the halfpipe at the World Cup, held in Copper Mountain, Colorado, and bounced back that March for the U.S. Open, where she secured second place. Now in her 20s, the former teen phenomenon has her heart set on earning a spot on the U.S. team for the 2014 Olympic Games.

Olympic Sports, Extreme Sports, Snowboarding, Winter Sports , Athlete, Sports illustrated, Vermont, Sports Inspirational, Empowerment, Influential Women, Women in Society, Women in Leadership, Award-Winning Athlete, Adventure athlete,