An Interview with Alex Schlopy
By Missy Hilton
Go to Utah Olympic Park, Deer Valley, Canyons or Park City on any given winter day and it’s not unusual to run into several little packs of local kids skiing and riding the slopes, whipping through the trees, flying off jumps, bump-bump- bumping down moguls and generally having a great time whooping it up on snow with coaches, friends, and family.
Years ago, Alex Schlopy was one of those local kids. At the age of 11, he was introduced to freestyle skiing and knew he’d found his thing. He entered his first competition at age 12 and never looked back.
Alex remained relatively unknown until 2011 when a mix of luck and a little help from a friend propelled him onto the world’s stage. It was the Winter X Games Big Air Competition and Alex was dying to be invited to compete. However, he had performed poorly in slopestyle and was shut out of the competition. When Tom Wallisch, a friend of Alex’s who was invited to compete, got injured, he went to officials and asked that they let Alex take his place. They said yes and Alex won his first ever gold medal at that event.
The same year, he also won the World Championships and the final stop of the Dew Tour. It was a big year with huge gains. But, then the tides turned. “After the successes I had in 2011, I lost quite a bit of work ethic and sort of expected things just to happen,” he said. “Over the next few years I had to fight and work hard to catch back up to the pack which had kept getting more difficult.” He managed to keep pace and during the Olympic qualifying year he achieved success again, winning one of the Grand Prix events in Park City. He narrowly missed competing in the Olympics. Regaining his competitive edge was one of the most rewarding victories of his career.
Alex has big plans this winter to train and compete, and his focus between competitions will be to chase a lot of powder and have a ton of fun. When he’s in town, he says, “Almost every morning I wake up and head over to Park City and shred some laps, unless of course there’s some fresh snow… Then I’ll be somewhere up higher on the mountain in the trees!” Alex couldn’t be happier to call Park City his home. “I love the environment and lifestyle here. Everyone is active and enjoys the outdoors. It’s just a great community of likeminded people where boredom isn’t an option!”
