Jonny Moseley has amassed an impressive list of titles and medals as a skier
but it is his ability to bring a crowd to their feet that defines his career.
In his quest to deliver the ultimate performance, Jonny has combined the
discipline required of an Olympic athlete, the ability to thrill required of a
X-Games athlete and the creativity and imagination required of a free-skier.
Jonny's versatility has not only brought him success on the scoreboard, but has
made him an innovative force in the skiing world.
Born in San Juan, Puerto Rico in 1975, Jonny hit snow for the first time when
his family relocated to the San Francisco Bay Area in 1978. He had early
success in skiing and the people around him took notice; people were mentioning
the words 'Olympics' and 'Jonny' in the same breath before he had reached
middle school.
In 1993 he was selected to the US Ski Team and after narrowly missing a spot on
the 1994 Olympic team, Jonny began preparing himself for the 1998 Olympic Games
reciting the mantra "I don't just want to go, I want to win". In 1997 Jonny put
school on hold and became a full time skier for the first time in his life. He
won the first two World Cup events of the 1997/1998 season, and secured a spot
on the US Olympic team. Jonny arrived in Nagano, Japan in February of 1998 and
one week later he won the first American gold medal of the Games with what had
become his signature move, the 360 degree mute-grab.
Jonny threw himself into celebrating with the same intensity he dedicated to
training but not before returning to the World Cup, winning the last two events
of the season and securing the 1998 World Cup mogul skiing title as well as the
US National title with nine wins on the season. Jonny reached the apex of mogul
skiing and he was rewarded. The U.S. Olympic Committee honored him by naming
him Sportsman of the Year, Rolling Stone magazine named him to their Sports
Hall of Fame and Cindy Crawford posed with him for the cover of Freeskier
magazine.
After his Olympic win, Jonny looked beyond the World Cup circuit to round out
his skills as a skier. He challenged the International Skiing Federation (FIS)
to allow their athletes to compete in professional events and entered ESPN's
X-Games taking second place with his newly developed trick, the Dinner Roll.
FIS and the US Ski Team acquiesced and today it is considered standard for
athletes to compete in both pro and amateur events throughout their careers.
Jonny spent the next three years competing in pro events, filming segments for
ski movies and honing his understanding of the 'business' of skiing. He
trademarked the Jonny Moseley SKI logo, co-branded product lines with several
of his sponsors, developed a video game and hosted "Snow Zone with Jonny
Mosley" for Fox Sports Net.
When Jonny decided to try to return to the Olympics in 2002, he went up against
the FIS for a second time. He lobbied them to allow him to perform his Dinner
Roll in the moguls. The FIS voted by a tally of 3-2 to allow the Dinner Roll in
World Cup competition but Jonny was having difficulty with the execution and
the judges were not responding to the innovativeness of the trick. As the
Olympics in Salt Lake City approached, the Dinner Roll finally clicked for
Jonny in the moguls. Jonny made the personal and pivotal decision that it was
more important to represent the US, his sport, and himself with his own style
than to repeat the tried and tested tricks. In his second appearance in the
Olympics, he executed a perfect Dinner Roll in the semi-finals and another in
the finals. Jonny thrilled the crowd and the judges awarded him fourth place.
Jonny did not take home a medal from Salt Lake but being true to his style
brought him honors of another kind. Later that year he hosted Saturday Night
Live, delivered the commencement address at University of California at
Berkeley, was declared one of People Magazine's 50 Most Eligible Bachelors and
hosted a series for MTV. He also watched his sport evolve as the FIS legalized
inverted tricks in the moguls. Today, it would be unlikely to find someone on
the podium in world-class mogul competition who wasn't executing a version of
the Dinner Roll.
Jonny graduated from UC Berkeley in December of 2006. He continues to do his
weekly radio show on Sirius Satellite Radio and TV hosting work. Last summer,
Jonny was a judge on ABC's Master of Champions. In 2005 Jonny brought 200 tons
of snow and 20 of the world?s top skiers and snowboarders to Fillmore St. in
San Francisco and held an urban big air competition in the middle of his
hometown. Last November, they took the event to San Francisco's AT&T Park and
Jonny is looking forward to bringing the event back this November.
