{"id":2450665,"date":"2019-11-02T20:52:01","date_gmt":"2019-11-03T03:52:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/news\/freeski-icon-peter-olenick-guides-next-generation-through-nonprofit-ski-team\/"},"modified":"2019-11-02T20:52:01","modified_gmt":"2019-11-03T03:52:01","slug":"freeski-icon-peter-olenick-of-aspen-guides-next-gen-through-nonprofit-ski-team","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/freeski-icon-peter-olenick-of-aspen-guides-next-gen-through-nonprofit-ski-team\/","title":{"rendered":"Freeski icon Peter Olenick of Aspen guides next gen through nonprofit ski team"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"swift-gallery p402_hide\" readability=\"6.3851351351351\">\n<ul id=\"imageGallery-315461-989\" class=\"gallery list-unstyled\">\n<li data-thumb=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/11\/skiing-atd-110319-1-150x150.jpg\" data-src=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/11\/skiing-atd-110319-1-1024x720.jpg\" data-sub-html=\"Kelsey Brunner\/The Aspen Times | Aspen freeskiing icon Peter Olenick will host a benefit on Wednesday at Wheeler Opera House in support of his nonprofit skiing team. (Kelsey Brunner\/The Aspen Times)\" class=\"h-100\" readability=\"-1.5\">\n<div class=\"caption\" readability=\"8\">\n<p><strong>Aspen freeskiing icon Peter Olenick will host a benefit on Wednesday at Wheeler Opera House in support of his nonprofit skiing team. (Kelsey Brunner\/The Aspen Times)<\/strong><br \/>Kelsey Brunner\/The Aspen Times<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"row no-gutters h-100\">\n<div class=\"col my-auto\"> <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/11\/skiing-atd-110319-1-1024x720.jpg\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" alt=\"Aspen freeskiing icon Peter Olenick will host a benefit on Wednesday at Wheeler Opera House in support of his nonprofit skiing team. (Kelsey Brunner\/The Aspen Times)\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li data-thumb=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/11\/skiing-atd-110319-1-1-150x150.jpg\" data-src=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/11\/skiing-atd-110319-1-1-1024x683.jpg\" data-sub-html=\"Courtesy | Aspen skier Cassidy Jarrell\" class=\"h-100\" readability=\"-2\">\n<div class=\"caption\" readability=\"7\">\n<p><strong>Aspen skier Cassidy Jarrell<\/strong><br \/>Courtesy<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"row no-gutters h-100\">\n<div class=\"col my-auto\"> <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/11\/skiing-atd-110319-1-1-1024x683.jpg\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" alt=\"Aspen skier Cassidy Jarrell\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li data-thumb=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/11\/skiing-atd-110319-1-2-150x150.jpg\" data-src=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/11\/skiing-atd-110319-1-2-1024x683.jpg\" data-sub-html=\"Courtesy | South Korean skier Yujin Jang\" class=\"h-100\" readability=\"-2\">\n<div class=\"caption\" readability=\"7\">\n<p><strong>South Korean skier Yujin Jang<\/strong><br \/>Courtesy<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"row no-gutters h-100\">\n<div class=\"col my-auto\"> <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/11\/skiing-atd-110319-1-2-1024x683.jpg\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" alt=\"South Korean skier Yujin Jang\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"caption-toggle\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/sports\/freeski-icon-peter-olenick-guides-next-generation-through-nonprofit-ski-team\/#\" class=\"show-captions\">Show Captions<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/sports\/freeski-icon-peter-olenick-guides-next-generation-through-nonprofit-ski-team\/#\" class=\"hide-captions\">Hide Captions<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText DropCap\">Before Peter Olenick became a freeskiing pioneer and X Games star, he was simply another young Aspen kid desperately looking for a few dollars so he could chase his skiing dreams.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cWhen I was an athlete and trying to come up and ski and compete, I was trying to go to a summer camp with my brother at Whistler and we didn\u2019t have any money to go,\u201d Olenick recalled. \u201cWe went around town asking people for donations and money and Boogie overheard us.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">A donation from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/news\/how-aspens-boogie-weinglass-went-from-broke-to-a-billion\/\">Aspen business icon Leonard \u201cBoogie\u201d Weinglass<\/a> opened a few doors for the Olenick kids, who would go on to rewrite \u2014 or in many ways, create \u2014 the freeskiing history books. Had Weinglass never intervened, Olenick may have never gotten his career off the ground.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cBoogie paid for us to go to summer camp, and at the camp I learned a bunch of stuff that kind of got me on the scene and sponsored. Then people like Chris Davenport and Klaus Obermeyer took really good care of us,\u201d Olenick said, making note of a couple other Aspen skiing icons. \u201cObermeyer was a big supporter of my brother and I and our skiing career. We were lucky enough that we could start skiing and traveling and competing and filming movies because of their support.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Now 35 and a professional coach, Olenick said the ski industry has changed a lot since he made a name for himself in the mid 2000s, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.xgames.com\/athletes\/3014630\/peter-olenick\">winning four X Games medals<\/a>, including gold in 2010. What he sees is an avenue for younger club skiers and for the high-level World Cup athletes, but there\u2019s a void for those in between to make ends meet.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">For this reason, Olenick started the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.proteamfoundation.org\/\">P.R.O. Team Foundation<\/a> last year. A clever use of his initials \u2014 Peter Ryan Olenick \u2014 the nonprofit ski team is a way to help those athletes who may not yet have the national team\u2019s support or big sponsorship dollars coming in.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cThese kids need something in the middle,\u201d Olenick said. \u201cSo my idea of the foundation is to raise money through fundraisers and private donations to support the travel and elite coaching and everything the athletes need so they can try and be as good as the guys on the national team.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Olenick said he got the nonprofit idea from the Aspen Valley Ski and Snowboard Club, which supports snowsports for 2,400 kids in the Roaring Fork Valley and beyond. The foundation relies mostly on donations to help keep the team members financially afloat.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Olenick has six skiers on his P.R.O. Team this year, including Aspen up-and-comers Cassidy Jarrell and Tristan Feinberg. Mammoth\u2019s Aaron Durlester is another, along with a pair of South Koreans in Yujin Jang and Kangbok Lee. Olenick has a close relationship with the South Korean team, having <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aspensnowmass.com\/inside-aspen-snowmass\/stories\/aspen-local-coach-in-pyeongchang\">coached their halfpipe skiers at the 2018 Winter Olympics<\/a>, which the country hosted.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">The sixth member of Olenick\u2019s team is Crested Butte\u2019s Aaron Blunck. While Blunck already is a national team member and established star in the ski world, he wanted Olenick\u2019s coaching and has become a good role model for the younger athletes.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cWorking with all sorts of people, it\u2019s crazy,\u201d Jarrell said. \u201cI\u2019ve become such good friends with the Koreans and call them some of my best friends now and what Peter is doing is super amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Later this month, Olenick is taking his crew to Austria for a private training camp. The World Cup season officially got underway with an August competition in New Zealand, with the next major contest being the Copper Grand Prix in early December.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Before the P.R.O. Team hits the road, they will <a href=\"https:\/\/aspenshowtix.com\/online\/seatSelect.asp?BOset::WSmap::seatmap::performance_ids=C3F2A5A0-6D61-477D-9E4A-65FFA660EAF1\">host an event Wednesday at the Wheeler Opera House<\/a> in Aspen. They will show \u201cBack to Life: The Torin Yater-Wallace Story\u201d and premier Level 1\u2019s \u201cRomance\u201d with some of the stars being on hand. Both Yater-Wallace, another valley local and longtime X Games star, and Blunck will be there signing autographs.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-youtube wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><\/figure>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Tickets are $15 and will go toward the foundation. Show time is 6:30 p.m. There will be a pre-film party next door at Public House beginning at 5:30 p.m., with free beer advertised.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cThe ski industry has kind of changed for competitive athletes who are trying to go to the Olympics,\u201d Olenick said. \u201cJust trying to be the missing piece for the athletes that are ready to go to the next level.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText Tagline\"><a href=\"mailto:acolbert@aspentimes.com\">acolbert@aspentimes.com<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/sports\/freeski-icon-peter-olenick-guides-next-generation-through-nonprofit-ski-team\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Aspen freeskiing icon Peter Olenick will host a benefit on Wednesday at Wheeler Opera House in support of his nonprofit skiing team. (Kelsey Brunner\/The Aspen Times)Kelsey Brunner\/The Aspen Times Aspen skier Cassidy JarrellCourtesy South Korean skier Yujin JangCourtesy Show CaptionsHide Captions Before Peter Olenick became a freeskiing pioneer and X Games star, he was simply [&hellip;]<\/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":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2450665","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-19 10:10:21","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":"KSPN The Valley&#039;s Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2450665","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2450665"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2450665\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2450665"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2450665"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2450665"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}