Freeski Big Air World Champion Troy Podmilsak: “Nerves are my special power”
In an exclusive interview with Olympics.com the USA star revealed how he overcame a nightmare to become world champion and why becoming an X Games champion left him with mixed emotions.
Freestyle Skiing
Big Air freestyle skiing can be dangerous and even the most experienced athletes get nervous before plunging down the 49-metre (160-foot) ramp.
But rather than try to ignore that feeling, USA star Troy Podmilsak chooses to be energised by it.
“Honestly, I feel like the nerves help me every time. It's like they are my special power. I let that butterfly feeling just take over me and kinda control what I do. I fully embrace it,” he told Olympics.com ahead of the Big Air 2024-25 World Cup season opener in Chur, Switzerland.
“Nerves are really the best thing for you and you can either let it control you or you can embrace it and control the fear and the nerves and really just put that energy into something good.”
It’s a mantra that has seen Podmilsak experience a meteoric rise in the sport over the past couple of years, in every sense.
Troy Podmilsak of the United States competes in the Men's Freestyle Slopestyle at the 2023 U.S. Grand Prix at Mammoth Mountain, California.
Troy Podmilsak: "I had some weird dream where I died trying the trick"
In 2023, the then 18-year-old made headlines after landing the world’s first triple 2160 mute grab to win the World Championships Big Air crown in Bakuriani, Georgia.
It was a remarkable feat of bravery for several reasons.
Firstly, he had never attempted the trick on snow, and the strong winds made the situation even more intense.
He had also fallen on several previous runs and torn his abdominal muscle, while a partially broken ski boot further hindered his stability.
“It was the worst feeling I've ever felt,” he recalled of the moments before the history-making jump.
“I remember sitting at lunch with my coach and telling him I'm not gonna do it. I’d just had some weird dream where I died trying it and I was so nervous I felt ill. It was just the most awful feeling I ever felt. But my coach was like, ‘You got it man, you gotta do it and you came here to win and this is how you're gonna win’.
“I could maybe get a third place or I could go home as the world champion. So it wasn't really an option in my head. I had to do it.”
After putting down a perfect jump, Podmilsak and his coach decided they enjoyed it most when pressure was at its highest.
“We have this thing where it's like we love last runs just because there's so much nervous energy and I’m now able to control that and use it to do something positive.”
The mentality needed to make history in freestyle skiing
Podmilsak's World Championship heroics are far from his only history-making feats. The ski prodigy was also the youngest person to land a triple cork 1440, and the first to land a switch double bio 1980 and forward trip cork 2160 in competition.
Tricks of such a technical nature require equally extreme concentration, bravery and hours of practise. When the time comes to putting them down in competition, Podmilsak simply goes blank.
“I go into this weird zone where I just try to think of nothing. Try to be nothing and your body kind of takes over on autopilot in the flow state,” he said.
“I feel like I ski best when nothing's really going through my head. So I just try to block everything out. Flip it off, do nothing. If my brain starts thinking of something, I'll just turn it off.”
And what about the danger of getting badly injured while pushing the boundaries of the sport?
“You have to be OK with the worst possible outcome. So you don't think about what's the worst thing that could happen, but you are aware of the very real risks and if you fully commit, most of the time it ends up working out pretty well. Again, you gotta flip the mind off and just really don't care.”
Lukas Muellauer (L, silver) Troy Podmilsak (C, gold), and Birk Ruud (R, bronze) at the FIS Snowboard World Championships Men's Big Air on March 4, 2023 in Bakuriani, Georgia.
Earlier this year Podmilsak achieved another huge milestone by winning Big Air gold at the X Games. And he did it in spectacular fashion.
Knowing he needed something special on his final jump to win, the Utah star - who needed to fix his broken boot moments before dropping in - delivered a monster forward right triple 2160 mute clean to edge Olympic gold medallist Alex Hall out of the top spot by a single point.
But after the dust settled on his achievement the 19-year-old's elation was replaced with a strange feeling of emptiness.
“It was so weird. I thought everything was gonna change after achieving my life goal,” he continued.
“That win was all I wanted and when I actually got it, it was really fun for like two days. Then all the adrenaline wore off and I was like, wow, this, this isn't as good as I thought it was.
“The achievement was still great and I look back at that with very fond memories, but it was definitely weird emotionally going from the highest highs and then just dead silent. Ten-year-old Troy would have been super, super proud, but I think the amount of work and effort and everything I put into it came with a weird payoff for sure.”
After some reflection, the world and X Games champ decided to set new goals, realising his victories didn’t mean as much if he couldn’t back them up.
“I sat down and thought, ‘all right, it's not done yet. The season's not over. You gotta refocus, gotta get back to training, gotta get back to competing’. Like, I won one contest, and that doesn't mean anything. So I had to get back to work.”
The risk and reward of freeski
Big Air freestyle skiers experience a particularly extreme roller-coaster of emotions.
From the pressure to perform and the nerves before trying new tricks to the buzz of flying through the air in front of packed stands, it’s equally exhausting and exhilarating for Podmilsak.
And that’s exactly why he loves the discipline.
“Honestly, Big Air is awful. I feel like I'm gonna die every time I go to the top,” he laughed.
“But the reason I do it is that feeling when you land and you get to watch that trick and you know, you just did the most insane thing of your life. That adrenaline payoff can be way too much to handle and honestly, it makes my brain go crazy.
“Ever since I was a kid, I just loved doing those huge rotations, going big and trying to do the biggest spin I could. I think Big Air is pretty much just that. When I was 15 or 16 I started doing really well in Big Air - more so than slopestyle and I started enjoying it more. You gotta do two jumps, your biggest spins, your biggest trick and that fell in perfectly with what I'm all about."
Armed with new moves, Podmilsak will look to harness his special power once more and land a first Crystal Globe, before setting his sights on the Milano-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics.
“The Crystal Globe is one of the higher goals on my list and that's what I've been training for. And then obviously the Olympic medal would really be everything to me, either in slopestyle or Big Air," he said.
To help the creative process Podmilsak posts his new moves on social media. And if his current feedback is anything to go by, the crowds for the 2024-25 season opener at Chur, Switzerland are in for a treat.
“I'm trying to step out into more creative skiing which definitely a little tough for me, but I'm working on it. I actually just learnt probably my most creative trick ever last week which took a lot of building. I posted on my Instagram and I’m getting a good reaction so far so I'm trying to do something totally new this week which I’m very excited for.”