Who would’ve thought? Snowboarder Red Gerard took home the first gold medal for Team USA in the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea, and Us Weekly caught up with him before he took the slopes where he revealed something you may not know about him.
The 17-year-old athlete may seem cool, calm and collected, but he wasn’t always that way.
“Um I mean I’ve gotten better about it for sure,” he told Us Weekly about competing. “Back in the day I used to get kind of nervous but, I’m pretty good about it now.”
And just like you’d expect from the youngest American to ever win a medal in snowboarding, he trains hard and lets the rest work itself out. “I mean everything kind of just happens,” he tells Us. “So like, [I] just gotta hang with it.”
As previously reported, Gerard took home gold on Saturday, February 10. He was initially in last place before going into his final run where he annihilated his competition by pulling out some unique moves that resulted in a score of 87.16 from the judges.
The Colorado-bred athlete — who began snowboarding at the age of 2 — opened up to Us Weekly ahead of the Olympic games and revealed his ideal plans with his parents and six siblings if he won: “I can just maybe go out with them and have a nice dinner — nice and easy.”
However, following his win, he admitted that his parents chose to follow the “go big or go home” motto. “I’m pretty sure I saw a video of them shotgunning beers at 8:30 a.m.,” he revealed during a press conference after he medaled. “So I’m pretty sure they are doing just fine.”
Gerard will take the slopes once again on Wednesday, February 21, for the men’s big air qualifications. Tune into the Olympics on NBC and to learn more about him, visit teamusa.org.
