Armenia: Yerevan and Washington Engage in Snowboarding Diplomacy

The White House has sent two high-profile American freestyle snowboarders as emissaries to Armenia, the US State Department has announced.

Amber Stackhouse, 30, and Erin Comstock, 32, have been dispatched as athletic envoys by the State Department. Their mission in Armenia is to "engage . . . youth in a dialogue on the importance of an education, positive health practices and respect for diversity," according to the State Department.

During their March 3-7 stay in Armenia, the pair will visit the capital, Yerevan, and the ski resort of Tsaghkadzor, where they will demonstrate their skills, conduct clinics and judge a snowboard cross event, a competition in which groups of snowboarders race along a course.

The two envoys' athletic accomplishments include Comstock's 2008 win in the Abominable Snow Jam contest, a summer invitational at Mt. Hood, Oregon, and Stackhouse's first-place finish in the 2003 American Snowboard Tour. Both snowboarders have film experience, the State Department noted in its news release. Neither competed at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics.