Indiana's Goepper is the slopestyle favorite; but what is it?
By now, Indiana residents who follow the Olympic Winter Games know that Nick Goepper is from this state, will ski in Sochi, Russia, and has a chance to win a gold medal.
But, uh, what is it that he does exactly?
The Lawrenceburg 19-year-old competes in slopestyle, a freestyle skiing event new to the Olympics.
Skiers navigate a course featuring ramps and metal rails, and are judged for style, creativity and precision. Five judges give each run a score of 0-100 and they are averaged; anything over 90 is a strong score. Goepper told sister Kasey, who is writing a blog for The Indianapolis Star, that the Sochi course is "awesome."
The format for Thursday's competition starts with qualification (1:15 a.m., Indianapolis time) in which 30 skiers do two runs each. The top 12 advance to the final (4:30 a.m.), and the best of each skier's two runs counts for the medals.
Opinions differed in freeskiing whether it was desirable for the so-called rebel sport to join a mainstream spectacle like the Olympics. But Goepper said he was "stoked," a term familiar in snowboarding, that slopestyle is not confined to the Winter X Games.
"It's constantly evolving," said Mike Hanley, who began coaching Goepper at Windells Academy in Sandy, Ore. "And it's the athletes who are driving it."
Jonny Moseley, an NBC analyst and former freeskier who won moguls gold at the 1998 Olympics, said a "playful spirit" is at the core of the sport. Scores were once awarded based on crowd reaction, he said.
"You've got to kind of keep touch with that," Moseley said. "They don't want to get so locked down and serious that it loses its fun."
Goepper said the essence of freeskiing is that it deviates from stricter disciplines such as gymnastics and diving. Applying rules would contradict the sport's beginnings.
"Your only limit is your own creativity and your own imagination," Goepper said.
After recently breaking his left hand, he defied convention by skiing without poles. In last month's X Games at Aspen, Colo., he performed a triple cork 1440 — an off-axis flip three times round. It was the second one ever done in slopestyle competition, following one earlier in the day by Olympic teammate Gus Kenworthy.
Another of Goepper's tricks is called the switch double-9 with Screamin Seaman grab. That begins by kicking one leg forward and one back (without bending knees), crossing legs onto opposite sides, and then kicking opposite legs forward and back.
"Nick just lays down some crazy tricks almost all the time," said Chris Laker, a Cincinnati skier who has competed against Goepper. "It's pretty mind-blowing, definitely."
To perform such stunts requires daredevil spunk, but it's not the crazy who win. It's the analytical.
Goepper learned freeskiing by watching videos in his parents' home over and over and over, then going out and applying what he learned. He continues to do so now, assembling his own video library.
Moseley said he knew Goepper was serious when he asked for advice about handling the Olympic spotlight. Moseley advised him not to say yes to every media opportunity — Goepper did appear on "Late Show With David Letterman" — because all of that would be available after Sochi.
Freeskiing's culture might seem like one nonstop party, but that's not the way to win.
"When the lights go off and they go back home, they're pretty cerebral and do a lot of analysis," Moseley said. "You just can't do this stuff without a certain amount of analytic ability, just because the tricks are so complex."
Goepper has won the past two X Games gold medals and has ranked No. 1 in the world over the past two seasons. Sports Illustrated picks him for gold, and The Associated Press picks him for silver behind Sweden's Jesper Tjader. Another American, Bobby Brown, is also in the medal mix.
Goepper's enthusiastic Twitter posts (@NickGoepper) from Sochi haven't reflected anxiety. In a recent interview at Perfect North Slopes, where he began skiing at age 5, he said wasn't paying attention to pressure.
"I mean, yeah, there's pressure," he said. "But if you think about it, the more you think about it, the more you ponder it, the heavier it gets. I just try to hook up with some good friends and enjoy myself."
That's the freeskiing spirit.
Call Star reporter David Woods at (317) 444-6195.
Slopestyle glossary
Double cork: Two turns upside down while jumping.
Flip: Backward somersault or front flip (the opposite).
Grab: Athlete grabs ski while jumping.
Slopestyle: Course of about 800 meters that includes ramps and metal rails.
Switch: Half-turn that allows skiers to ride course from opposite way.
Trick: Jump whose goal is height, amplitude, style and difficulty.
Triple cork: An off-axis flip three times around.
360, 720, 1080: A 360 is one turn in the air, a 720 is two, etc.