A Decade After His Lowest Point, Nick Goepper Is Taking A Second Run At Skiing and His Life

By the time freeskier Nick Goepper stood atop the X Games superpipe in January 2025, he wasn’t just making a comeback — he was redefining what it means to return.

At 31, the Fort Wayne, Ind. native had already stepped away from the sport once, feeling burned out and finished with competition after the Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022, where he repeated his silver medal performance in slopestyle from Pyeongchang 2018. But a little more than a year later, he was not only back — he was better, riding a new wave of purpose in a different discipline and proving that reinvention, even this late in the game, can be the most powerful move of all.

“I was fully done,” he said, reflecting on his decision to walk away after the Beijing Games. “It really felt like I’d accomplished all that I dreamed of.” But his story didn’t end there. A year later, while sitting on the couch at home in Salt Lake City, he felt it in his bones — he wasn’t finished. “It was almost like being sick of the car you’re driving, but you still love driving. You just need a new ride.”

That new ride came in the form of the freeski halfpipe — in a sport that demands fearlessness, reinvention and obsessive repetition, the three-time Olympian and medalist found clarity in risk.

“Halfpipe is risky, but it’s also methodical,” he explained. “It actually reminds me of where I learned to ski — in Indiana, on a 400-foot hill. You could lap it again and again. There’s a kind of instant feedback loop in the pipe that just feels like home.”

It’s that mix of danger and familiarity that drew him in. When first thinking about making the switch, he said he started with the end in mind, which was “winning a gold medal in Milan,” he admitted. “Now, let’s determine how to get there. And the first and most important thing was to have fun, and love it — and that’s what I started with.”

After a quiet test trip to Switzerland in the spring of 2023, he committed. By the start of 2025, he’d claimed his fifth X Games title — his first in halfpipe — and a silver at the world championships.

“I never thought that would happen,” he admitted. “But this year I’ve proven to myself that you’re only as good as your highest level of preparation.”

Goepper’s story isn’t just medals and milestones. After winning bronze in Sochi in 2014, his life spiraled. After struggling with substance abuse and depression, he checked into rehab for two months and has been sober now for over a decade.

“Managing your life off the skis is probably the most important thing you can do to propel your career on skis,” he reflected.

That understanding of balance — tenuous and ever-evolving — is what’s kept him grounded, even as he trains for what may be his final Olympic run.

“Skiing is part of me,” he said, “but it’s not all of me.”

These days, joy comes from simpler things: riding his snowmobile, working in his garage or spending time with the woman he plans to propose to this summer.

“She’s amazing,” he said. “She balances me out.”

He also leans on his parents and friends to help keep his mental health in check. “I was so blessed to have good role models and mentors growing up. To this day, I still go to my parents for advice, and they’ve been great.”

Goepper has never been about glamour. He still skis in jeans and thrifted gear, an ode to the values instilled in him back in the Midwest.

“We never had name-brand cereal in the house,” he laughed. “But my parents made sure we could still chase our dreams, no matter what it took. Jeans and thrifted gear — it's just an extension of those values.”

That do-it-yourself ethos extends to Rollerblade Ranch, the personal training compound he built in the Utah desert that includes a 13-foot quarter pipe and a 50-foot airbag.

“Actually, to be classified as a ranch, you must have livestock,” he shared. “I don’t have that, but I have a giant ramp.” He created it last summer as a way to learn a skill he plans to show off in Milan. “It’s this whole roundabout, do-it-yourself way to learn a new skill. And it’s always been a dream of mine to do something like that.”

As one of the oldest competitors on the circuit, Goepper is now more philosopher than phenom. “My competitors are 17 or 18. I was them once. But they don’t have the perspective yet.”

He explained: “I’ve made some big mistakes over the years, and some of them I’ve had to make over and over again to finally learn. But it’s how you get perspective.”

That outlook on life has also helped him push harder without being consumed by the outcome.

“I think winning and losing affect my mental health less now. When skiing is just a part of your life — not the whole thing — it gives you the freedom to go all in.”

He’s also learned to disconnect. “I don’t check the comments anymore,” he said about social media. “If it’s something I care deeply about, I’ll look. But otherwise, I don’t need to expose myself to negativity from strangers. It just doesn’t serve me.”

To stay ready — mentally and physically — Goepper trains every day, even if it’s just skateboarding or riding his bike.

“If it’s not fun, it becomes work. And the good thing is, I love my job,” he laughed.

And despite the demands, he still clings to the romanticism of youth.

“Those are some of my most cherished memories of doing the sport. That’s when I was happiest, 17 to 20, just learning new tricks, surrounded by friends, everything was new. I try to tap back into that.”

Of course, it’s not always easy.

“When I was 17, I was living at a ski academy in Oregon surrounded by kids and skateparks and trampolines. Now my neighbors are a guy in construction, a lawyer and a landscaper. I’m the only skier on the block. So, it takes more effort to find that passion again. But it’s worth it.”

With an eye toward Milano Cortina 2026, Goepper is focused but realistic.

“Skiing now isn’t just about fun — it’s about jumpstarting life after skiing. That means staying healthy, making money, investing in a future that includes a family.”

Looking back on his past, what would the only man with more than one Olympic slopestyle medal tell his younger self?

“You’re doing exactly what you’re supposed to be doing,” he said. “The good, the bad — it’s all teaching you something. No regrets.”