Salt Lake City Freestyle Skier Goes For Gold In Beijing
Feb 15, 2022, 6:54 PM | Updated: 7:04 pm
Alexander Hall of United States performs a trick during the Men's Freestyle Skiing Freeski Big Air Final on Day 5 of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games at Big Air Shougang on February 09, 2022 in Beijing, China. (Photo by Harry How/Getty Images)
(Photo by Harry How/Getty Images)
BEIJING — Salt Lake City’s Alex Hall is already taking the sport of freestyle skiing to places we’ve never seen before. He’s an innovator in his craft — turning the unbelievable into reality.
It’s in his genes. His inspiration on the snow started long before he was born, on the slopes at Alta.
Kids are oftentimes inspired by the amazing feats of their heroes. For Freestyle Skier Alex Hall, he was in elementary school when he fell in love with his sport.
“I was maybe 11 or 12,” Alex said. “Seen some things on the internet and had some friends that had seen or heard about freestyle skiing.”
But the hero for Alex, it wasn’t an Olympic Gold medalist or an X-Games legend — it was the man who taught him to ski when he was just a toddler.
“Probably the main reason for starting freestyle ski was I got to watch some old videos of my dad and his friends from the late 1970’s. And they made some home movies, and they were all, like, skiing up at Alta, jumping and doing flips on skis and stuff way back then. They were the OG Hot doggers,” Alex said. “I got to see videos of them, and that just got me super hyped to do it myself.”
And that pioneering blood runs deep in Alex’s veins. He became the first ever to land a 2160 in competition at X-Games Aspen in January. That’s six full rotations, and he does it while showing off his signature grab. But he did that in Big Air, the even that he finished just off the podium earlier in the Beijing Games.
Slopestyle is the last chance for Alex to medal in Beijing. And he’s no pushover in that event, taking the Bronze in the World Championships in 2021.
“I’m usually not the guy to set crazy goals.”
Instead, Alex just takes a relaxed approach to each run, because he knows when he does, it usually pays off.
“Just taking that approach, trying to be more in the moment, and hopefully that works out for me,” he said. “It has in the past, kind of when I’m more casual and enjoying myself, I feel like I get my best results.”
Alex Hall competes in the Freeski Slopestyle Finals Tuesday night on KSL TV, along with Colby Stevenson, who won Silver in the Men’s Big Air event, and Nick Goepper.
