Jon
Olsson
Sweden
·
Freeskiing
Date of birth | 17 August 1982 |
|---|---|
Place of birth | Mora, Sweden |
Age | 43 |
Nationality | Sweden |
Career start | 1999 |
Disciplines | Freeskiing Big Air |
A top freestyle skier, throughout his career Jon Olsson has taken medals away from the Rip Curl tour, the US Freeskiing Open and was crowned Red Bull Big Air champion in 2003.
Jon's total Winter X Games medals stash is now in double digits and the freeski legend has been hosting his own tournaments since 2005. The Jon Olsson Invitational, a prestigious Big Air competition, is an annual highlight in any freeskier’s diary. Jon even won the Invitational himself back in 2006.
Some of Jon's greatest accomplishments lie outside the realms of medals and prestigious awards – Jon's creative flair has seen him bring some new innovative moves to the table, inventing the likes of the Hexo Flip and the DJ Flip. It's perhaps the Kangaroo Flip – a double flatspin 900 – that's earned the Swedish skier a reputation for pulling out some truly sick tricks. He used the Kangaroo to score a victory in the Big Air competition at the 2008 Winter X Games. But that same year he sustained a knee injury that required surgery – an injury that would make a reappearance later on.
Jon later made the switch to alpine skiing and made his debut in the Alpine Skiing World Cup in Val d'Isère in 2010. Following some early successes, he set his sights on qualifying for the Games in Sochi in 2014. But he was prevented from fulfilling his dream when his knee injury struck again in 2013.
Since then, Jon has continued to excel on the slopes while the Jon Olsson Invitational and his love of cars keep him busy.