Who: Jared Goldberg, age 30
What: Olympic alpine skier
Where: Salt Lake City
Youâre headed for your third Winter Olympics. In which events will you compete in Beijing?
They had not decided who will be on the teams as of early January, but Iâm preparing for the downhill and super-G races.
How did you become a world-class skier?
My family and I moved to Salt Lake City from Boston when I was 4 years old. I spent a lot of time skiing at Snowbird Mountain Resort. It was a really cool upbringing because I got to spend my time on a ski team that was like a big family. I went to high school in Salt Lake, and I was able to work it out with my teachers that I would leave for weeks at a time. They fully supported me; I just told them I had a dream that I would go to the Olympics someday. And then when I was 19, I made the U.S. ski team. At 22, I was the youngest member of the Sochi Olympics U.S. menâs alpine team.
Whatâs life like for a professional skier?
Itâs a 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. job with a lot of traveling. Weâre on the road about five and a half months of the year, if not more. Itâs really cool because we get to see the world and ski on different mountains all over the world. Weâre working hard and strength training when weâre on the road. These days, itâs hard to work out in public gyms, so in Europe weâve been carrying around a whole set of weights and equipment. We have to constantly exercise and do physical therapy. We also watch video when weâre done with training.
What COVID protocols are you following for the Olympics?
Right now, weâre in our downhill team bubble. Weâre almost a bubble within a bubble, actually, because we also limit our contact with the other guys on the U.S. ski team. And when weâre out in public, weâre not able to do as many autograph signings, and family members arenât even allowed to stay with us at the races this year. That has been the protocol for basically the whole year. If weâre around other people, we have to wear a maskâsometimes even within our own meetings with our downhill team.
You need to be vaccinated to go, and on our team, you need to also have a booster. Thereâs going to be a lot of testing before we fly and when we get there. The workers are going to be wearing hazmat suits on the plane, Iâve been told.
How do you support yourself?
I have sponsorships with Snowbird Mountain resorts, and I have equipment sponsors. My skis, my helmet, my goggles, my Spyder outerwear, those brands are my other source of income. Thereâs also prize money. You get paid for your position, and you get points for your positions as well. If youâre in the top 30, you get World Cup pointsâ100 points for first place all the way down to one point for 30th place. I make a little bit of money on Cameo, too. I do shoutouts, happy birthdays, give people advice and things like that.
I also dabble with cryptocurÂrencies for fun. I started investing in crypto about four years ago. A couple of buddies on the team and I started playing around with it, not with big numbers or anything. It has just been kind of fun fooling around and learning more about it.
What are your thoughts on the political situation with China now?
I think that itâs a good call to not pull the athletes out of the competitions, because weâd give up a lot of medals. We donât want to make it easy for the other countries.