USA/FILE: WINTER OLYMPICS - Slopestyle skierTom Wallisch ready to lead the U.S. Freeski team to Sochi next year when the event debuts at the Olympics

Record ID: 331198

  • Title: USA/FILE: WINTER OLYMPICS - Slopestyle skierTom Wallisch ready to lead the U.S. Freeski team to Sochi next year when the event debuts at the Olympics
  • Date: 8th February 2013
  • Summary: NEW YORK, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES (FEBRUARY 7, 2013) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) FREESKIER TOM WALLISCH SAYING: "So, we're not really going to have a chance to see it [Sochi] before next year, but it's not like a race where you want to know what the pitch of the run is. For us, it's when you get there and you're practicing that's when you figure out what you're run's going to be, you know. You've always got to ride the course first to figure out what tricks you can do on what jumps or rails, so."
  • Embargoed: 23rd February 2013 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Usa, Russian Federation
  • City:
  • Country: USA
  • Topics: Sports
  • Reuters ID: LVA7ZXVW0YL2TIGSAUR9M66QFSH4
  • Story Text: With one year to go until the Olympics in Sochi, Russia, Tom Wallisch is at the the top of the slope ready to lead the U.S. Freeski team to the podium when his slopestyle event debuts at the Winter Games.
    Named "skier of the year" three times in a row by Powder Magazine, Wallisch dominated the slopestyle circuit in 2012: earning the World Champion crown, a North Face sponsorship and a spot on the inaugural US Freeski team as it prepares for Sochi.
    But the relaxed 25-year old knows it will be a tough battle to claim the first ever Olymic gold in his event. One of the most popular competitions in the X-Games, Sochi will be the first time skiers and snowboarders get to perform in the discipline that favors style over difficulty.
    "I guess you can't really practice style. You can learn a new trick and you could do the hardest run, but if you do those hardest tricks and they don't look good or you're not grabbing your ski in our sport, yeah it won't get scored well at all," Wallisch explained to Reuters on Thursday (February 7).
    Unlike other winter sports that race against the clock or give points for how difficult the technique, slopestyle awards points for how smooth and stylish a skier performs during his run.
    "It's really cool to have that as a part of our sport, 'cause it makes it more fun to watch. It's not like 'Ah, I can't believe that guy survived that jump. He's the winner. He went upside down five times.' It's not always about, like, doing the hardest trick. It's about making it look, you know, 'I think I can do that. I want to go out try that. That looks like fun and cool and easy'," says Wallisch.
    To make it more difficult, a winning run like Wallisch performed throughout the 2012 season won't get him wins in 2013 as he prepares for the Olympics.
    "It's hard. I mean to keep up with, yeah, doing so well and having a lot of pressure on me and people expecting me and me being heavily favorited [sic] to win stuff, it's a lot of pressure. Just kind of, you know, ski just as much, learn new tricks, but it's hard," said Wallisch.
    "The run that I did last year that I was working with and that I was using all the time to win, it's like you can't really go back and do that the next year because even if it's a winning run, in our sport it's cooler if you're doing something different, even if it's not harder, necessarily, just the variety, creativity, that's scored so well, so going back and trying to learn new tricks and stuff every year, it gets harder and harder."
    But the hard work that Wallisch puts in during the off-season and over the summer, honing skills and developing new tricks on trampolines or in the foam pit, has paid off handsomely. Now the native of Pittsburgh is at the vanguard of freeskiers leading the once 'alternative' event into the mainstream of winter sports at the Olympics. As one of the leading talents on the U.S. team that meets several times a year for workouts, he's a mentor to a pool for youngsters supported by the team's primary sponsor, The North Face, and even has direct imput on the uniform being developed for the Olympics -- a key consideration for a sport where style matters.
    Still, Wallisch knows there's nothing guranteed and there's a long way to go until he gets to Sochi -- even a planned trip to the event site later this Ferbuary was cancelled due to poor weather and ongoing construction in the host city.
    "We're not really going to have a chance to see it before next year, but it's not like a race where you want to know what the pitch of the run is. For us, it's when you get there and you're practicing that's when you figure out what you're run's going to be, you know. You've always got to ride the course first to figure out what tricks you can do on what jumps or rails, so," shrugged Wallisch.
    Now, he will head off to the season ending events before going through a rigerous summer workout and travel schedule to prepare his perfect, and hopefully, winning run for next season.
    "I'm going to do summer's in the glacier up at Whistler or Mt Hood and then go down to New Zealand and travel a lot this summer in order to work on new tricks and come up with hopefully a new run that'll, yeah, hopefully land me on the podium in Sochi next year," said Wallisch. "I guess we'll see."
    The Opening Ceremony for the Sochi Olympic Games is scheduled for Friday, February 7, 2013.
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