Goepper emerges from dark place to earn second medal.
American emerges from dark place to earn second medal
PYEONGCHANG, SOUTH KOREA >> Nick Goepper only met Jeret “Speedy” Peterson one time.
The larger-than-life Olympic aerial skier left a powerful impression on Goepper, an Indiana kid on his way to his own whirling fame.
So, when it got bad four years ago, when Goepper felt so lost after winning a bronze medal in the freeskiing slopestyle event at the Sochi Games, he got into a car and drove to the spot of a suicide.
Goepper thought about dying where the troubled Peterson had taken his life at age 29 on a summer night in 2011, a desolate area near Park City, Utah, known as Lambs Canyon.
In a macabre scene that underscores the pressure some athletes face when being thrust into the spotlight for the briefest of moments, Goepper went to the hard edge just the way he skied.
He drank a bottle of vodka and “just sat there, contemplating it myself in my car,” Goepper said Sunday after winning a silver medal with a head-turning final run at Phoenix Snow Park.
“It’s a very hard subject to talk about and difficult to understand but it’s just important to be genuine and heal and recover and just learn, just continual learning and education and just stimulating your mind with new information about different things is so important for your overall well-being,” he said.
Goepper, now 23, felt his life paralleled Peterson’s in facing the lonely times after the Olympic flame fades. Most Olympians return to their lives or capitalize on newfound fame. But some simply slip into an abyss that can be difficult to recover.
Goepper was part of a whirlwind tour after he, gold medalist Joss Christensen and runner-up Gus Kenworthy swept the new slopestyle event that includes big jumps and sliding off rails. They enjoyed a Star-Spangled day in the Caucasus Mountains.
Soon, however, Goepper appeared to be another reckless actionsports star for anyone who didn’t know the depths of his depression. He started self-medicating with alcohol and was arrested a half year after the Sochi Games for throwing rocks at vehicles.
“I was partying a lot with my friends, kind of flying into this void,” Goepper said. “Three weeks after the Olympics I was like, What am I doing?”
As his life spiraled out of control, Goepper gravitated to the compelling story of Peterson’s struggles.
The three-time Olympian best known for his “Hurricane” trick, never could overcome the multiple challenges of his young life — even when sharing
some of the demons publicly.
Peterson was sexually abused when he was younger, although he downplayed the episode as impacting his life. The skier pointed to the loss of his older sister Kim, who was killed by a drunk driver just a few weeks before her high school graduation. Speedy was 5 at the time.
Years later as one of the world’s best aerial skiers, Peterson seemed like one of the Winter Games’ more colorful characters.
But a year before the Turin Games in 2006 he faced another nightmare. A friend he lived with in Park City shot himself in the head in front of Petersen.
“He said every time he closed his eyes, that’s all he saw,” the skier’s mother once said.
After finishing seventh in Turin, Petersen became better known for getting into a fight with a friend after the event. Later, he was hospitalized twice while battling depression and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
Goepper related to Peterson’s trials, perhaps too much. Instead of landing jumps, Goepper landed in a rehabilitation center in 2015 because of his heavy drinking. But Goepper said he hasn’t had a drink since 2016.
“I’m super proud just to be where I am today,” he said. “I don’t know how it got to the point, but there came a time when I pretty much had given up on skiing altogether and had given up on myself and basically wanted to end it.”
Goepper has worked on his issues and sounded ready to rejoin the regular world while carting around a second Olympic medal. The skier credited family and close friends for supporting him to get past the demons.
“I just can’t wait to just keep rolling and keep skiing and just keep hustling because I love what I’m doing,” he said. “I’m going to do what’s important after this Olympics and really capitalize on this moment.”
It unfolded beautifully after Goepper sat eighth after two of three runs. He scored 93.60 points after landing a four-rotation spin off a big incline to gain the medal.
Goepper wants to continue skiing. He’s not going back to Lambs Canyon any time soon.