Charismatic American snow boarder Shaun Palmer is allegedly set to return to World Cup downhill racing, eight years after hanging up his bike. Palmer started off in skate boarding in the early 80’s before making it big in the world of competitive snow boarding.  With several top titles to his name and a thriving snow board business he turned his attention to mountain biking in the off season in the mid 90’s, for fun, culminating with a silver medal at the 1996 World Championships in Cairns.

Palmer turned his back on the sport in 1999 to concentrate on other things but the larger than life rider is set to make a return at selected rounds of the World Cup riding for Santa Cruz.  Palmer was instrumental in attracting big name sponsors in the 90’s and rode for Specialized.  He is tailor made for extreme sport TV although his loud brash style is not for everyone.  During his last stint int he sport he drove to races in a converted hearse and the ‘Palmer’ factor introduced showman style to the World Cup scene attracting the likes of ESPN and the Extreme sports channel.

If the reports are true then we could be seeing the return of one of the sports biggest stars although other sports men who have returned have not fared so well.  Nicolas Vouilloz ( who was by far a better rider) rode some rounds of the World Cup in 2007 and although competitive was not at the top of the leader board as he would have wished.  Female downhillers live in fear of the return of Anne-Caroline Chausson, the unbeatable French star who won every title that was put in front of her.  Lets not forget though that Thomas Frischnecht was still competitive at the advanced age of 38, winning the Marathon World championship in 2005 (although he has just retired).  Palmer is 39.