Skiing
Why Torin Yater-Wallace's story is like a movie
Imagine the worst things that could happen to you in life, triple that list and come back afterwards to win X Games. That's Torin Yater-Wallace's story.
This is the story of the most heart-breaking set-backs and most heart-warming perseverance that skiing has witnessed to date.
At just 15 years of age, Torin Yater-Wallace wins his first X Games medal, silver in the SuperPipe, becoming the youngest X Games medallist ever.
But then, a massive setback strikes: Yater-Wallace’s dad is incarcerated due to a failed business venture. He’s charged with fraud for a wine-selling Ponzi scheme and sentenced to 11 million dollars in restitution, driving the family into bankruptcy. With the main breadwinner in prison, how will the family survive in America’s most expensive jet set resort? “My ski career did not seem like something that was going to work out,” Yater-Wallace says. “It’s an expensive sport, and we had literally no money...”
On the way to an incredible gold at the Oslo X Games in 2016
© Kyle Meyr/Red Bull Content Pool
But Yater-Wallace’s mum works several jobs to keep him in an environment where he can do what he loves most: skiing. Skiing is his religion, his rock, his driving force. The family has to survive on food stamps, but Yater-Wallace keeps winning comps, at a steady pace.
“When I saw him competing at the X Games the question in my mind was: what’s going on? Why is this little kid riding as if his life depends on it? What does this kid have to prove?” remembers Sal Masekela, presenter at the X Games. “He was a boy among men. As much as he was smiling and saying ‘I’m happy to be here’ there was something very, very steely about his resolve.”
What’s going on? Why is this little kid riding as if his life depends on it?
For years, Yater-Wallace’s prize money goes towards paying rent and making ends meet, which he views not as a burden but as a release. By the age of 18 he's won four X Games medals (including gold) and is the overall halfpipe winner of the AFP Tour. His ski career seems to be on track.
Yet life has other plans: in late 2013 an acupuncturist drives a needle too deep into his body, puncturing his lung. TYW breaks down with a collapsed lung, needs surgery to drain the liquid out of his lungs. When he attempts to compete two weeks later in the first Olympic qualifying event, his lung collapes again and breaks several rips.
But due to his previous steady, solid results, the US team coaches keep the discretionary spot for him, enabling TYW to participate in freeskiing’s historic debut at the Games.
That’s the moment when fate throws another shock: only eight days before Sochi hi mum is diagnosed with cancer. In the US healthcare system, such news often means financial ruin, but worse, her life is at stake. How will TYW hold up in competition despite the devastating situation? He does hold up, does compete, his mum does survive. And while he doesn’t achieve the result he had envisioned (he only ends up being 26th), he says he felt “blessed to be skiing at all”.
The roller coaster continues: in 2015 a rare bacterial infection that attacks his gall bladder, liver and lungs, necessitating 10 days of medically-induced coma and paralysis, nearly killing him. Doctors at one point call in his family and loved ones to his bed, fearing he won’t survive.
See the best photos of Torin Yater-Wallace competing and get to know his family:
Torin Yater-Wallace training for the freeski competition at the Games
© Zach Hooper/Red Bull Content Pool
How TYW overcomes obstacle after obstacle is what sets this story apart
© Aaron Blatt/Red Bull Content Pool
Torin Yater Wallace following his calling: Daring yet graceful skiing
© Aaron Blatt/Red Bull Content Pool
There was something very, very steely about his resolve
© Aaron Blatt/Red Bull Content Pool
Waking up from coma, the main challenge is to support his own weight, let alone walk or ski. But once he leaves the hospital, only one thought is on his mind: "I just want to go ski."
Yater-Wallace skis with medical equipment attached to his body – drain tubes in his liver and gall bladder, blood flowing from his liver to the tube. He has to choose between competing and risking a re-infection, or miss the X Games. TYW takes the risk: after three months off snow, and only two weeks of training he scores 5th place at the X Games in Aspen, followed by an incredible gold at the X Games in Oslo.
Through all these setbacks, how did TYW manage to come back to life, back to skiing, back to winning? Where did he find the resolve, the energy, the trust, the audacity to continue following his calling?
"He's the most caring, loving, positive person to be around," ski jumper and girlfriend Sarah Hendrickson said. While you would expect the inverse given the situation, Hendrickson says, “he is always the one cheering me up.”
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