2018 Winter Olympics: Who is Nick Goepper?

Nick Goepper is a 2014 Olympic bronze medalist in slopestyle and a three-time X Games champion.

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Goepper started out the 2017-18 season with a fourth-place finish at the World Cup in New Zealand.

2014 Sochi Games

Goepper was the top-ranked skier heading into Sochi. He nabbed an early lead in the slopestyle final with a promising first run, in which he landed a triple cork, but he was upstaged. Goepper's first run score was enough to score bronze. This was only the third time in history that the U.S. swept the podium at the Olympic Winter Games.

About Goepper

Goepper was born March 4, 1994, in Lawrenceburg, a small farming town in Southern Indiana. He is the eldest of four children. His two sisters were competitive gymnasts. Goepper would practice his jumps on the trampoline under the guidance of his sisters’ coach, Mary Lee Tracy, who was the assistant coach for the gold medal-winning 1996 women’s gymnastics team.

Credit: Michael Hickey

Credit: Michael Hickey

During his middle school days, Goepper would mow lawns, pull weeds and sell candy bars in order to earn enough money to buy a ski pass for the winter. He would buy the candy bars in bulk from Costco and then sell them out of his backpack on the school bus.

Goepper was discovered at an action sports camp in Ohio at the age of 15 and was later offered a scholarship to a sports academy in Oregon.

Other interesting facts:

  • Finished second at the 2017 Euro X Games.
  • First impressive results came during the 2010-2011 season, when he placed third at the Dew Tour stop at Killington, then later won the Dumont Cup that winter.

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