{"id":795092,"date":"2019-04-23T10:41:19","date_gmt":"2019-04-23T16:41:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/?p=364867"},"modified":"2019-04-23T10:41:19","modified_gmt":"2019-04-23T16:41:19","slug":"an-olympic-gold-medalist-brings-a-zen-approach-to-fame-family-and-the-future-of-snowboarding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/local-news\/an-olympic-gold-medalist-brings-a-zen-approach-to-fame-family-and-the-future-of-snowboarding\/","title":{"rendered":"An Olympic gold-medalist brings a Zen approach to fame, family and the future of snowboarding"},"content":{"rendered":"
Red Gerard on Friday, Dec. 14, at Breckenridge Ski Resort.<\/strong>
Hugh Carey<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Red Gerard wasn\u2019t expected to win gold at the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, last February.<\/p>\n

He entered the final of three runs through the Olympic slopestyle course in as good as last place after failing to stay upright on his snowboard on his previous two attempts.<\/p>\n

What a difference 51 seconds can make. After letting out an audible sigh at the top of the Olympic slopestyle course, Red dropped in. He then executed an atypical line through the course\u2019s features compared to his fellow competitors. After rotating for three vertical inversions and four 360-degree rotations on his final trick, Red slid on his belly to come to a stop in front of adoring television cameras that were glued to him like heat-seeking missiles. He nearly tripped over his Burton board unbuckling his bindings. He then jogged over to receive his gold-medal score of 87.16.<\/p>\n

Moments later, Red found his family. Namely he found the youngest of his six siblings, his little sister Asher, 9, then a third-grade student at Frisco Elementary School.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe came out and she was standing there,\u201d Malachi, Red\u2019s older brother and social media guru recalled, \u201cand, it was like she didn\u2019t know him, or something. She was nervous to, like, hug him. And he walks up and he\u2019s like: \u2018What are you doing? Get over here!\u2019 And she ran up and finally hugged him and said, \u2018I\u2019m so proud of you.\u2019 It was really cute.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think any of us really expected it to go like that,\u201d Red said. \u201cIt was just a really crazy and surreal moment. I didn\u2019t even know when I gave her a hug that she was going to be all over TV.\u201d<\/p>\n

Olympic gold-medalist and Silverthorne resident Red Gerard at Dew Tour Dec. 14, at Breckenridge Ski Resort.<\/strong>
Hugh Carey<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

HOMETOWN HERO<\/h3>\n

Shortly after Red\u2019s win, the Silverthorne sign off Interstate 70 was draped with a \u201cgold\u201d banner, turning the then 17-year-old\u2019s hometown into a more fitting \u201cGoldthorne.\u201d<\/p>\n

Red\u2019s schedule was suddenly filled with a parade, a meeting with the president and late-night TV appearances as the laidback teen who overslept, lost his coat and still took gold became an overnight sensation. But for Red, one of the most important appearances on his schedule was going back to his roots at Frisco Elementary School to meet with his little sister\u2019s classmates.<\/p>\n

With some free time in Red\u2019s globetrotting schedule, Asher asked her mom, Jen, to email her teacher about having Red come in. On the heels of preseason training in Switzerland, it\u2019d be a tight turnaround for Red to swing up from Denver, but he was more than happy to make it happen.<\/p>\n

While Red and Asher handed out snowboarding-related goodies to the throng of students, their older brother Malachi took photos and filmed the festivities.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe set everything up,\u201d Malachi said of Asher, \u201cshe wanted me to get all of the prizes, asked me to contact Red\u2019s sponsors \u2014 Red didn\u2019t know about any of that.\u201d<\/p>\n

 At the end of the elementary school event, while on the front stoop of the school, Red finally got a reprieve from handing out sponsor gear and signing autographs. During the last few minutes of signing \u2014 beneath a student-created banner that read \u201cWelcome back, Red!\u201d \u2014 Red was with Asher.<\/p>\n

Moments later, the two youngest Gerard children departed the school together. Asher\u2019s favorite ski resort, Copper Mountain Resort, wasn\u2019t open yet, but she\u2019d be there to snowboard soon enough.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are eight years apart,\u201d mother Jen Gerard said, \u201cbut yet they are numbers six and seven. So they\u2019ve always had fun together.\u201d<\/p>\n

Red Gerard, of the United States, smiles after winning gold in the men\u2019s slopestyle final at Phoenix Snow Park at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, Sunday, Feb. 11, 2018.<\/strong>
AP Photo \/ Lee Jin-man<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

FAR FROM FAME<\/h3>\n

After the initial media push, it was time for Red to disappear back into the kind of lifestyle he loved.<\/p>\n

Over the summer, Red and Malachi lived in a beach house near the waves and skateparks of Oceanside, California. As far away from snow as possible, this may have been an unusual path for an elite athlete. But this was Red. He\u2019d bike each morning to retired professional snowboarder Chas Guldemond\u2019s small backyard gym by the California coast. Afterward, Guldemond would take Red surfing, typically at Buccaneer Beach. There, Gerard grew from being a still-learning surfer into a more confident carver in the water \u2014 confident enough to ride the bigger waves down by the Oceanside Pier. Out on the water, he was back to those familiar elements of fun, family and friends. But, maybe more importantly, he was also back to personal growth far away from the bright lights of superstardom.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe point where you can actually see and look into the future,\u201d Red said, \u201cand see, like, \u2018man, this is a fun sport. I can start learning stuff and doing turns and all of that,\u2019 that\u2019s when it really started becoming really fun for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

EYE ON THE FUTURE<\/h3>\n

\u201cFun\u201d was the emblematic word for Red\u2019s life following the Olympic madness. He was having fun while facing his fears and the crashing waves at Buccaneer Beach. And he was having fun at December\u2019s Dew Tour at Breckenridge Ski Resort when the 5-foot-5, 116-pound teen pondered where his snowboarding would go from here.<\/p>\n

On the morning of the Dew Tour, Red isn\u2019t even sure what he\u2019ll be attempting when he competes on the slopestyle course. In between sips of coffee, he says he has \u201cno clue\u201d what he\u2019s going to do for his run. Calmly, he relays that it\u2019s something he\u2019ll \u201cwork out\u201d in practice. Free and easy as always, Red isn\u2019t overly concerned when plans aren\u2019t nailed down.<\/p>\n

He has the same attitude when looking at the future of snowboarding. Though he doesn\u2019t know what it is yet, creativity and fun are key elements. Red would like to see competitive snowboarding evolve as his teens become his 20s, with one-of-a-kind snowboard terrain and courses.<\/p>\n

\u201cSomething where you could include both halfpipe snowboarders and slopestyle snowboarders would be my dream way of competing,\u201d Red said.<\/p>\n

He looks to his fellow Mountain Dew athlete Danny Davis and his Peace Park concept as inspiration. Gerard said he\u2019s open to the idea of working with a group like Snow Park Technologies \u2014 who built the Dew Tour modified superpipe and Peace Park \u2014 to conceive of his own creation.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019d just be cool if something stuck like that,\u201d Gerard said of Peace Park.<\/p>\n

The Peace Park concept allows for multiple riders on a course at the same time, and for Red more is always better.<\/p>\n

He makes it a priority to snowboard with his energetic family when they are snowmobiling in the Summit County backcountry at Red Cliff near Vail Pass. Out there, he\u2019s joined by his four brothers, two sisters, father, Conrad, and mother, Jen. They are laid-back parents who\u2019d prefer to chat about, say, hiking, hunting and fishing in the wilderness north of their home near Silverthorne than to chat about Red\u2019s latest competition escapades.<\/p>\n

Which is why those little moments with family are everything for Red.<\/p>\n

Despite all of the fame that came with his Olympic victory, one of Red\u2019s favorite memories is the airplane ride home. He sat beside Malachi on a flight back to the U.S. Unplugged from it all, Red relaxed.<\/p>\n

This moment \u2014 hanging out with the older brother who first inspired him to take up snowboarding at just 2 years old \u2014 put it all in perspective.<\/p>\n

He was free again.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was really cool because that was like the only free time I had,\u201d Red said in November. \u201cIt was so cool to just sit there and hang out and actually realize what just happened.\u201d<\/p>\n

via:: Summit Daily<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Red Gerard on Friday, Dec. 14, at Breckenridge Ski Resort.Hugh Carey Red Gerard wasn\u2019t expected to win gold at the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, last February. He entered the final of three runs through the Olympic slopestyle course in as good as last place after failing to stay upright on his snowboard on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[99],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-795092","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-14 21:10:13","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSMT The Mountain","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/795092","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=795092"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/795092\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=795092"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=795092"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=795092"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}