it ’ s part of the journey .” So I travel with them a lot . But when I ’ m home they have a little case . They ’ ve got their own little special spot .
Out of all your medals and achievement , which mean the most to you ?
Each one means a lot in different ways . I kind of had a dry spell where I didn ’ t win any competitions . I didn ’ t win any X-Games , gold medals , I didn ’ t win anything . So the X Games gold medal this year leading up the Olympics was a huge accomplishment . It was like a confirmation , yeah I ’ m still in it , I ’ m still on track to do well .
But then , winning my second Olympic gold medal , it ’ s gonna be hard to beat that , ever !
What ’ s it like to be part of the US team ?
It ’ s fun . We have a really , really talented crew of skiers I think . Just making the Olympic team this year was one of the hardest things to do , just cuz we have such a stacked team .
So I feel lucky to actually to be on the US team . It ’ s probably the hardest team to be on - or the hardest team to make for the Olympics , or World Championships or anything . Because we have so much talent . For me it ’ s a good thing because the guys that I feel like are my biggest competition are the guys that I ski with every single day .
I ’ m never surprised by people from the other countries I ’ m like , “ Oh wow , I had no idea this was coming .” Cuz the guys who are pushing me the most are the guys that I ski with on a day to day basis .
What does your training schedule look like ?
It depends on what time of year , but in the off-season I go to the gym three days a week - a couple of hours , three days a week - and then on the days that I don ’ t go to the gym , I either ride my mountain bike or run or do something endurance-oriented .
Because my - and every athlete ’ s different - but my body type is a lot heavier than I want it to be . If I just worked out and didn ’ t do some kinda cardio to counteract it , I would get really bulky , and heavy . And I don ’ t wanna be heavy , I wanna be strong but agile . So I ’ m constantly in a state of trying to be as strong as I can possibly be without being heavy .
How much does the support of your
Olympic team affect that ? Are there any new approaches to training or ideas they ’ ve introduced to you ?
Yeah , one of the things I think that every country is realising is how important the mental side of being an athlete is , so yeah .
Over the last couple years , the Olympic team - both on the US side and the Olympic ski team side - have gotten a lot more involved in doing sport psychology and stuff like that , and that ’ s always something I ’ ve been fascinated with . I love psychology . It ’ s one of my potential future career paths actually , I wanna do sport psychology and be a mental strength coach for other athletes .
Because that was my biggest struggle as a young competitor . I could compete - or I could ski really well - but I couldn ’ t compete well because I wasn ’ t mentally very good at it . I had to overcome that and kind of learn the hard way . But I would like to help athletes by helping them learn the easy way , how to overcome this mental strength . How to stay tied to the moment not what happened last round , not worry about what might happen next time but right here , right now .
You had a tough time , personally and injury-wise , over the last four years - how did that interact with your ski career ?
Yeah , I can say this now looking back , that I really am thankful for the hard times .
It ’ s hard to explain but when you ’ ve seen how bad things can be and you ’ ve seen how hard things can be - when they get a little bit better it feels amazing . I was injured quite a bit and had a lot of personal-life things happen - so feeling healthy again was like feeling the best I ’ ve ever felt in my life .
Being able to let go of the things that I couldn ’ t control and just go out there and ski , feels great . So yeah , I would say to anybody that ’ s feeling this , if you ’ re in dark times just be thankful for it - because everything you get through is something you can use in the future as a strength .
You do a fair bit of charity work as well – what can you tell us about that ?
Every competition this year , every time I ’ m on the podium , I give 10 % of my winnings and sponsorship payouts to an organisation called One Leg Up On Life , which is a non-profit that my sisters actually started .
One of my sisters , who ’ s a pilot in the Air Force , lost her leg in a boating accident three years ago . My other sister , her twin , is a surgeon and has spent a lot of time volunteering down in the Dominican Republic and Haiti - and realised the need that there is in third world countries for better prosthetics . There ’ s a lot of amputees in those countries , some of them don ’ t even have a walking leg or anything , whereas my sister who ’ s in the Air Force has a walking leg , a running leg , a biking leg , all these different cool things that help her enrich her life again .
So , their goal at One Leg Up On Life is to provide a better standard of living of these amputees in third world countries . It ’ s been fun to me to be a partner with them . Obviously , I ’ m a skier and I ’ m travelling around constantly - that ’ s what I do - so I can ’ t help as much physically , but I can help by supporting what they ’ re doing .
That sounds great man . While we ’ re on the subject of family , how are you finding being a rad dad ?
A rad dad ? Yeah , the interesting thing is that I was never very successful as a skier until after my daughter was born . And a lot of people wrote me off ... I was 21 when my daughter was born and everybody was like , “ Oh , well that ’ s the end of Dave ’ s career , that was good for him , too bad- ”
Ironically , that was what freed me up to really compete well , because I realised the things that I was focusing on - the things I cared most about - at the end of the day they didn ’ t really matter .
Yeah , of course I wanna be successful , of course I wanna do the best I can in skiing , but the most important thing I do is take care of my kids , take care of my wife and be a good husband and father . So they ’ ve enabled me to just take the pressure off , shrug my shoulders , go out there and enjoy skiing . That ’ s made me a better skier , it ’ s made me a better competitor .
I really feel like they truly are the reason that I ’ ve done as well as I have .
How do you balance the family time with your skiing ?
I feel like instead of my family being something that I have to balance , I almost look at it from a perspective that they ’ re what balances me .
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