Indiana Outlier
Nick Goepper’s Tech Savvy
Spinning off-axis 30 feet above the ground, a slight arm adjustment caused Nick Goepper’s rotation to slow. Turning his head, he spotted his landing far below. Gravity took hold, pulling him back to the icy lip, and he reorientated his lower body. His skis touched down on the upper reaches of the near-vertical wall and a wide grin stretched across his face. Unsure how his secret 2023 trip to this remote Swiss valley would pan out, Nick Goepper had found a new passion: halfpipe skiing.
Nick Goepper has always been highly driven. From a young age, the three-time Olympic slopestyle medalist felt different from his peers. “I’ve always been a dreamer,” he told me on a hot summer day in Salt Lake City, UT. As Goepper explained Malcolm Gladwell’s theory from his famed book “Outliers”—which explores the convergence of opportunity, timing, effort and environment contributing to extraordinary success—I began to understand his rise from humble midwest roots to the top of the slopestyle world.
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