SILVERTHORNE, Colo. — A lot can change in four years, and that’s certainly the case for slopestyle snowboarder Red Gerard.
"In 2018, I was 17 years old,” said Gerard. “Pretty young and really just getting my feet into competing.”
At 17, Red flew to the top of the snowboard world earning gold at the 2018 Olympics and becoming the youngest person to earn gold at the Winter Olympics since 1928.
Back in his hometown of Silverthorne, excitement for Gerard could be seen all over, with the town unofficially changing its name to Goldthorne and signs congratulating him popping up on store fronts and from house balconies.
“Coming home and seeing Goldthorne, it was like wow, how insane that the Olympics had this much of an impact on my hometown,” said Gerard.
In the years that followed, Gerard has stayed on top of the slopestyle world. He recently won the Dew Tour at Copper Mountain, an international competition that secured his spot at the games.
"The Dew Tour is something I have always been fond of,” said Gerard. “They are the ones for snowboard and slopestyle that are trying out new courses and trying out the creativity side with snowboarding.“
Snowboarding has become something Gerard has taken a leadership role in over the past four years, jumping into side projects and getting into snowboarding films and efforts to get more children into snowboarding by building small beginner terrain parks at more ski areas. They're called “Red’s Parks” and are similar to his own backyard park in Silverthorne.
"That was the goal -- keep it small, nothing crazy, nothing intimidating,” said Gerard. “Little hike park, you can hike with friends and it's free, you start there and work your way up.”
All that and competing in his second Olympics while learning to enjoy the pressure that comes with an event like the games.
“Going into Beijing, I figured out I really do enjoy competing and I like having pressure on me,” said Gerard.
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