(dramatic music) - [Heather] Freestyle skiing is the closest thing I've ever had to a religion.

- [Brad] I love the word grit, passion, free, [Brad] proud.

- [Heather] It's everything, it's what shapes you.

It's your friendships, it's your personality, and your work ethic.

- [Bryon] I have to shred the crap out of a 250 meter, triple black diamond.

If you're thinking about the next bump, it's already behind you.

- [Eric] Aerials, there is nothing on the planet that you can do that feels like that.

It's like determining the winner of a golf tournament with a tee off and a put.

You can't think about the consequences.

- [Heather] Sometimes I felt like my whole self worth was on the table on display in those 27 seconds.

I was skiing for way more than me.

I was skiing for yes, the United States, but I was skiing for Montana.

- [Landon] Montana breathes freestyle.

You wonder what's going on in Montana with freestyle skiing.

- [Andy] Montana was grassroots kids.

- [Donovan] Nobody came from money.

And so we had to work hard for everything that we had.

- [Bryon] We'd go hustle.

We'd go mow lawns, sell pasties.

We'd do what we needed to do.

- [Eric] I had to go off limits to hide from the ski patrols.

- [Donovan] We hit jumps in the woods.

- [Landon] It is truly incredible.

This story of how deep and represented freestyle skiing is in the state of Montana on an international stage.

- [Commentator] Trace Worthington, here alongside Johnny Moseley, we will settle who wins World Championship Gold right now.

Brad Wilson of the United States.

- [Donovan] When we stepped out there, it was just our team, which was Montana, against everybody else.

- [Commentator] The toughest draw you can get in the world, Mikael Kingsbury.

- [Brad] You've worked the past 10, 15 years on this 30-second run.

(dramatic music) The Montana style is you go for it, and go massive.

(dramatic music) - [Presenter] Mavericks was made possible by Wendy Roberts, Mike and Sheri Page, Heather Jernberg and Rob Sarfi, the Greater Montana Foundation, encouraging communication on issues, trends, and values of importance to Montanans.

Dennis Slonaker and Elaine Schoyen, Ken and Jenny Younger, Nancy Thompson Flikkema, John and Kim Kircher, Montana Ski Areas Association, Rob Maher and Lynn Peterson-Maher, and by these generous donors.

(dramatic music) (upbeat music) - [Joe] The origin of freestyle is flips and something different.

Stein Eriksen, you know, his big flyaway front flips, legs glued together and sticking landings, he felt the vibe early.

- [Landon] Call it freestyle, call it hot dogging, Stein put it on the map.

- [Landon] By the 1960s, competitions were insane.

Big on courage, lots of speed, big crashes.

- [Joe] It was carnage.

They were trying to push things.

Part of the newness that captured people to watch it.

I think people could see the risk and the danger in this sport.

(upbeat music) - [Landon] All bets were off, like it wasn't over till you crossed the finish line.

(upbeat music) Into the seventies, you've definitely got some organization.

Maybe there's some event sponsors, there's point system, and you've got a big team component.

Scoring systems are becoming more prevalent.

- [Joe] It was still bright colors, and parties, and risks, but the skill set, it was progressing as well.

(upbeat music) - [Landon] Transitioning to the eighties, you've got US Ski Team, maybe some uniforms on the line, world cup starts.

So you've definitely progressed up to this level where people are mentioning the Olympics in freestyle skiing, and what that could mean for the sport.

The stakes are getting more elevated.

[Commentator] He's on course now, he'll be doing a half-in, half, full and he nailed it!

Unbelievable!

Beautiful jump!

- [Landon] Freestyle is happening in the larger metropolitan areas, but Montana, late to the party, or whatever you wanna call it.

- [Andy] All these people from the East Coast and Colorado they're, Montana, what's in Montana?

Montana was grassroots kids.

- It was kids from families that didn't make a lot of money.

(soft music) - [Donovan] We have lot of drive and no organization.

We did it by ourselves.

(soft music) - [Eric] I used to go and take a collapsible shovel, and hide it in my parka in the back.

I had to go off limits to hide from the ski patrols, because any jumps that I built on the runs were marked off or torn down.

We didn't have any money.

Really.

We bought used skis for 10 bucks.

My friend and I had these big old army parkas.

And we thought it was cool to be good skiers, wearing cheap equipment.

We were always joking around, and having fun, and not a care in the world, nothing to prove.

Even before I skied, I wanted to have a stunt man's club, and the initiation was to jump off the garage roof.

Nobody would jump off the garage, so I was the only one in the club, and I had to change the rules.

And eventually, I worked my way up to jumping off my chimney.

- [Heather] I'd always loved bumps.

We would go up to Big Sky, and we'd ski Mad Wolf, and we'd like, my friend, Tyler, and I, would bribe our parents, and try to cajole them into taking us on Mad Wolf one more time.

So I think my mom just decided to go to the Bridger's, like opening, you know, like team sign up night.

That first year, she didn't really know how it worked.

So she just signed me up for every event.

I was really bad.

I had someone tell me that I should quit, because I was making him worse just by watching me ski.

But I loved it from the beginning.

I was a bumper at heart.

(soft music) (soft music) - [Brad] Our family was kind of just the go doers, you know.

My brother and I started skiing really young.

I was three when I started skiing with my parents, and we would do weekend trips to Lost Trail.

Every weekend we'd go.

We noticed these skiers on the mountain that were just really, really good, like who are these guys?

They can ski anything on the mountain.

Brad and I followed 'em, tailed them, and they would ski down the moguls like it was nothing, and we're like how do you do that?

And we were, I mean, hooked from then on.

- [Brad] Watching that, and having that feeling on the chairlift of being like, I just wanna be the best mogul skier on the mountain, you know.

- [Female voice] Here goes Brad.

Woa!

- [Bryon] We would hike up after school to the path outside of Butte, then we'd go up there every night, and just pretty much huck ourselves until we figured out what we needed to do.

Like Cork-7 was a trick that I really, really wanted to do.

And I had no idea how to do it.

If it got too dark, we would just use the lights of the oncoming semi trucks.

And we'd have to time it so when they were shining on the jump, then ok go, and you'd hit it and go, and then wait for the next truck to come along and give you some light for the jump.

- [Bryon] Hey, ma.

- [Female Voice] Good workout tonight.

- Oh yeah.

- [Female voice] Made some nice jumps.

- Thanks.

- [Jeannette] Nothing I'd rather do on my birthday than watch these kids doing this jump.

- [Man's voice] You're a good mom.

- [Andy] I grew up at Snowbowl, I skied at Snowbowl from when I was six years old.

The terrain at Snowbowl is incredible, and there's just so many steep mogul runs.

So if you skied at Snowbowl, you skied moguls because that's what was there.

- [Male voice] Famous Andy Hayes.

- [Andy] And I think that just bred people that were good skiers in moguls, and there was a core group that could pull together, and there would be the dynamics of each other.

- [Male voice] All right, let's get some air.

- You would go up on the mountain in the morning, and you would run into this guy, and then you'd run into that guy, and pretty soon you'd be a pack of 10 or 12 guys.

And you'd just ski hard moguls all day, and there weren't built jumps on the course.

So you just skied hard, and did your jumps off of a mogul that looked like you'd get air on.

- [Mike] Because a group of skiers that skied together pushed each other, but there was no real formal or no real structure to it.

- [Commentator] Lloyd Langlois, from Canada, just 22 years old.

He's on course.

It's gonna be a half, one and a half, if he lands this, he's gonna win?

Half, one and a half.

Half!

He nails it!

Puts it right down.

- [Joe] Eric Bergoust and I, you know, we were in school together in Missoula.

We saw on ESPN, I think it was '85 Breckenridge World Cup.

- [Eric] I made a copy of it.

I taped it on a VHS tape, and we edited out the parts we liked, and we put it to music, put it to different songs, and watched it over and over and over again.

I was like a super fan of anybody doing aerials.

And that, just watching that event, and having that tape, and watching it over and over again, I fell in love with it right there.

- [Commentator] 22 year old Lloyd Langlois from Quebec.

- [Joe] It was an amazing time.

I don't think any of us looked at obstacles that were headed our way.

Just kids daydreaming about being good at something that was really fun.

(upbeat music) - [Landon] Early days, freestyle in Montana was clearly different than the larger ski resorts in America.

You're showing up with your cooler and your barbecue, - [Joe] we stayed in the parking lot, and I remember getting woken up by the snow plow in the morning.

We stayed in ski patrol huts.

- [Tony] It was tough.

None of us had money.

We stayed together.

Always.

We crashed in the back of cars.

- [Landon] It felt like a monumental goal to get from Montana to the next level, or the highest level.

- [Bryon] There is something to be said about going out and doing it yourself, making it happen.

- [Eric] I was trying to get to a water ramp facility to a training camp.

My parents never had enough to support me.

So everything was all my own money.

I bought a $500 car, bought a camping stove, and a tent.

And when I got to Placid, I only had $10 left, and my car was out of gas.

So I rode my bike everywhere.

- [Curt] Slept in a tent, you know, and eating peanut butter all of the summer, having no food, but he still just worked every day at it.

- [Joe] Bergy never skipped any details.

And he just would go till the end.

And it wasn't 'cause he wanted to, you know, prove anything.

He just wanted to get as good as he could be at his sport.

- [Commentator] Nicely done!

That's what I mean, right there.

- [Eric] I would go to the jumps as soon as they opened, I would take a lunch break, but I wouldn't take my stuff off.

I'd just go to the side of the pool, and have a sandwich and keep jumping.

And then I would jump as long as I could.

- [Commentator] Hello, and welcome to the third stop of the 1986 Ford Pro Mogul Tour.

- [Joe] You know, the competition thing was still something that was out there and a dream, not necessarily attainable at that time.

- [Landon] We needed somebody to create that road for us to drive down.

Andy Hayes paved that road for us.

- [Donovan] He's legend.

He's a smoke jumper.

He's just like a Montana bad-ass.

- [Curt] He jumps into a fire.

He digs a fire line, hauls all his material out on his back when he's done.

This to him doesn't even seem like hard work.

It's just fun.

- [Male voice] Here's Andy, coming full speed.

- [Andy] In 1986, about, I had a pretty strong freestyle background at that time, and knew I was interested in doing something with freestyle.

- [Male voice] Look at him go, that's Darin Patzer.

- [Donovan] There was no divisional organization or almost none.

- [Male voice] He's getting some good air (cheers).

- [Donovan] The mountains were not accepting of us building jumps anywhere, ever.

Training, the most basic thing, was really hard to do.

- [Andy] And that was actually my goal, in about '86 or so, is to start a division here with the U.S.

Ski Association.

So I did some letter writing, explaining the situation.

And at that time I had, I don't know, there might've been 20 kids in the division, and I had four or five kids that were really, really interested in USSA, and in qualifying for junior nationals or US championships.

And then I went to Colorado Springs to a USSA meeting, and presented what Northern had, and asked for sanctioning in the USSA.

Driving home from that meeting is when I really realized what I had bitten off.

And that I was really intimidated by what had I started here.

- [Male Background Voice] Moguls are looking big, snow is soft.

- [Joe] You know, I look at the way Andy is, to how he'll do the work, can we make this happen?

- [Heather] He was freestyle in Montana.

He ran the show.

But he always had this smile on his face, and was excited to see the athletes, and was supportive and just so into it, and jazzed.

So it's like, oh, it's raining?

We're still here.

It's awesome.

Life is awesome.

We're skiing.

- [Male voice] Get a big smile from the winner Curt?

[Curt] Definitely a big smile.

- [Landon] Under Andy's guidance, things started happening fast.

- [Andy] Have a beautiful day here at Lost Trail today.

Course is really nice.

The snow is soft, moguls are big.

We have some hot skiers.

(people screaming and cheering) - [Landon] By the late eighties, competitors in Montana were recognized by USSA, and on the regional level, they were competing on the weekends to try to make it to those nationals, and potentially the world cup.

- [Commentator] And in the right, red course on the right, Scott McCullough and spins a big one.

We gotta hot run this for first and second, the juniors, two of the top junior skiers in that region to the head.

They're not afraid to jump up in the air.

- [Joe] Hey, we can go to these events, and get our chance.

- [Commentator] Welcome back to ESPN's coverage of World Cup Freestyle from Breckenridge, we're now set for the men's aerials.

Four years ago at the Calgary Olympics, young Eric Bergoust of Montana was the first in line to watch the aerial competition.

Now he, of course, is taking part himself gunning for the Olympics.

- [Joe] And to see Bergy go to a much higher level was unbelievably inspiring.

- [Commentator] And this is a first Tim, this is a quadruple twisting triple, first time he's ever done a competition, and he's nailed it.

He's nailed the jump.

A perfect landing Park.

[Commentator] 22 year old Bozeman, Montana native, Tony Gilpin.

Here is one of those youngsters we talked about trying to get there.

- [Joe] There's some magic to it.

I look at it even right now, and I'm just like, how did this happen?

It was, it started to steamroll.

- [Commentator] Right now, Tony is just going all out with a helicopter spread of 180 right there.

Fantastic stuff.

And look at that speed as he makes his way across the finish.

Tony Gilpin is through with the run, and Park, it seems every year some youngster comes out of nowhere to shine at the nationals.

- [landon] Within a six-year period, you've got a Northern division athlete making an appearance in the Olympics.

(crowd cheers) And underneath that, you've got other layers of national events where Northern division skiers are showing up.

You could just feel things were happening, and in sport with Northern division.

- [Mike] All of a sudden speeds are way faster, and conditions could be trickier.

- [Brad] The Montana style is you go for it.

It was a go big or go home mentality.

- [Commentator] Now, it's time for Landon Gardner, 21 year old of Missoula, Montana.

- [Landon] It was a big time in freestyle for Northern division.

- [Commentator] Landon Gardner takes down Nate Roberts, the big name veteran of the US Ski Team.

- [Joe] It just speaks to all the hard work, and all the sacrifices that you know, that happened here.

- [Commentator] Heather Mcphie's got to slay a champion.

The 25 year old's set to drop in.

- [Mike] She's an athlete that for me as a coach, drove me, you know, she was so driven.

She worked her tail off.

I think our freestyle athletes from Montana, were definitely known for being on the edge.

- [Tony] She has done what no other girl in Montana, and in moguls has done by any means.

She's one of those athletes that dedicated everything to the sport.

- [PA Announcer] ...On the bottom air, make some noise!

- [Commentator] Wow, look at that.

Heather makes the speed at 29.99.

- [Donovan] We were a threat and we were collectively a threat.

We were like a pack of wolves that, you know, always try to get after it, get after it, get after it, like one of us is gonna get you.

All the time.

- [Curt] These kids are as good as anybody in the world.

It's happening right here.

- [Commentator] All right.

From the United States, here is Bryon Wilson.

(dramatic music) - [Bryon] It's a super difficult, super competitive sport.

And that's the thing is, it can be tough mentally and emotionally.

It's a sport can crush you.

- [Heather] It's really just so intense.

And I saw a lot of people unraveling in that intensity.

It's pretty awful.

- [Brad] There's a lot of stuff that goes behind the scenes that isn't quite as easy to talk about.

But a lot of people don't realize, you know, the struggle that goes into it.

- [Heather] For several years, I was known as the girl who won training.

I wasn't very good at competing.

And I would worry about that, and that kind of got in my head.

I think the biggest thing that would keep me up was am I gonna perform like I'm capable of?

- [Eric] I trained so much water that my ratio of water ramping to snow jumping was out of whack.

It's so much easier than snow.

It's bad to train too much water.

On water, you don't really have to look at the water.

And on snow, there's huge consequences if you land here vs here.

I went two full years without landing.

And then the next year, the third season, it was a huge, huge struggle.

I didn't understand.

I didn't have a path forward.

I didn't have any answers.

- [Commentator] There it is.

Continues to struggle on the landings.

- [Bryon] My worst seasons were always the ones where I trained well.

- [Commentator] Gets a little bit backseat, but his hands are sending him off the bottom jump.

He just does a huge moon drop.

- [Bryon] And then I came into the season, didn't have a very good result, and think that I had to up my game instead of just skiing.

- [Commentator] That was kind of scary though.

- [Commentator 2] It was kind of scary.

His hips dropped back as he came into that jump, and he was like, bail, bail, right away, pull the rip-cord.

- [Bryon] I think self doubt comes from comparing yourself.

It really is.

It's okay, this guy is killing it, crushing it.

I'm not good enough.

Right?

My package isn't good enough to beat that guy.

So you go into this super negative thought process.

(eerie music) [Eric] Someone's getting hurt today.

I don't know if it's gonna be me or you, but here we go.

(eerie music) - [Brad] And it is scary for sure.

There's times where we're completely out of control.

- [Heather] I got really fearful of injury for a little while.

I was standing in the gate going, I'm gonna blow my knee this round, which is obviously not what you wanna be thinking about before you race.

- [Bryon] Injuries are brutal.

- [Landon] It's completely unavoidable.

A ligament tear, a broken bone can be the difference of missing an Olympic cycle, and being on the sidelines for two years.

- [Joe] It's a difficult road.

Some people have the nagging injury that they just can't overcome, and it ends their career fast.

- [Eric] I was training for the Olympics in Olympic finals, and I came in short, and landed on my chest.

And I felt like I had broken my ribs.

I couldn't breathe.

- [Heather] When I fractured my back, it was hard.

And when the doctor was like, well, you probably won't compete again, I just didn't believe it instantly.

I was like, well, no, I'll figure it out somehow.

Like this is what I'm meant to be doing.

(soft music) (driving music) - [Bryon] You have to put in the work.

It is work every day, getting up, going to the gym, busting ass for three to four hours, and then go to the water ramps another two, three hours.

- [Heather] Chopping wood and carrying water is what I call it.

It's like, okay, I got it.

I just got to go in and get this done.

And I was always willing to do more.

Maybe if I did one more set in the gym, or if I did this, I'd be better.

And my strength coach in particular had to write naps into my program, right?

Like, no, you have to rest.

- [Eric] I still hadn't learned to land.

It was a huge, huge struggle.

I didn't understand, I didn't have a path forward, and I could not get it.

But I didn't give up.

I kept trying.

I kept trying to figure out why.

My coach, Nick Bass, told me about this physics of tilt twisting.

- [Joe] Nick had found an old freestyle skier - an acquaintance that had a water ramp, and they set up camp, you know, for the summer.

And they stayed in the camper.

They lived it, you know, over and over, day after day, rep after rep. - [Eric] In the past, everybody thought that they would twist by going that way, by moving their arms that way.

But what you'll notice I'm doing, I'm lifting my right arm higher than my left.

And I knew that's what was causing the twist, but it was very inefficient, because it was short levers.

So I said, I bet I can take off with my arms down.

Not even having my arms up on takeoff, take off with arms down, do a whole flip, and do a twist just by lifting my straight right arm a little bit.

I can create the same amount of twists with a tiny movement that everybody else is creating by going like this.

- [Joe] They had to start from scratch.

He'd looked at it as if I learn how to master tilt, I'm gonna win.

And if I do it better than anybody else, I'm gonna be unbeatable.

- [Tony] It has become a sport that demands a lot of direct, specific training.

The sport is evolving.

- [Man speaking] Checked all your flight times, all your contact times, everything, how much time you're on the ground.

- Yeah.

- [Heather] That's changed a lot, right?

Like I was never in bumps when it was just spontaneous airs.

- [Joe] Historically, mogul courses were made just by making turns.

And the courses formed as they were.

Now, the days it's done with tapes, and the moguls are spread out exactly the same.

- [Heather] I worry about that.

I actually sometimes feel like it's getting a little one style by this extreme focus on perfection instead of expression.

(upbeat music) - [Landon] You could say that the free ride movement is the last haul out in freestyle, where, you know, these guys aren't conforming to the stricter rules, regulations, and degree of difficulty, and the judging, and these criterias.

And, you know building bigger jumps in the terrain park, and doing their own type of style.

- [Maggie] You know, growing up with brothers, I was definitely a tomboy, and had to keep up with them all the time.

My twin brother heavily influenced me to do freestyle.

So I was like, okay, tried it.

And I remember the first day, he was hitting the big box, and I was on the little box.

I'd never done really any free skiing before.

And I remember being like, God, he's better than me.

I need to be hitting the big box.

And just kind of from that day, I fell in love with it.

- [Landon] Maggie's incredible.

She was on skis at a very early age, up in Whitefish, Montana.

- [Joe] And by the time she was a young teenager, she had already podiumed at multiple big events.

- [Commentator] All right.

Focus your attention to the top, this is Darian Stevens.

- [Female Voice] Hey, Darian!

- [Darian] I mentioned to my dad that I wanted to become a racer, and he kind of had different feelings about it.

And he told me that I should try freestyle.

So I started doing Missoula freestyle when I was like eight, probably.

And pretty much was just obsessed with it.

Loved jumping, I loved going really fast.

I loved everything about it.

- [Tony] She's the rocket.

As a little girl, she wanted to be the best and go the farthest.

I think that's where the name came from.

She wanted to go to the moon, right from the beginning.

- [Darian] I started skiing moguls, and I really liked it for a little bit, but kind of started veering towards slope-style.

- Hey dad, if I move like this, this would only be a ninety.

I wanna go for that.

- [Male Voice] Oh, okay.

- I really liked jumps, I always did.

And I don't think the jumps and the moguls were kind of enough for me, and slope-style scared me.

I loved it.

I think the other part of it too, is just slope-style's so much more, you know, free.

Like moguls is very structured, and I always like to do things differently.

So I think slope-style is kind of the one for me.

- [Donovan] You know, it became pretty clear, like I don't wanna ski moguls.

I wanna just hit jumps.

And then we're like, okay, well this is gonna be, it's challenging for us, 'cause Snowbowl doesn't have the facilities for that.

- [Darian] For a little bit, that was probably a pretty big disadvantage.

I moved out to Park City for the winter when I was 16, and then moved out to Park City full-time when I was 17.

- [Donovan] That's the reality of being a Montana athlete.

That's the story of all of us, is once you get to that level, then you have to go someplace else where they can, you know, you can train seven days a week.

- [Darian] It's one thing to do a trick one day in the park and land it.

But it's another to do every single trick in a slope-style run, like perfectly all in a line.

It is really hard.

You know, in moguls, sometimes you even get almost penalized for doing a harder trick if you're not doing it perfectly.

And whereas with slope-style, you know, like if you're doing a trick no one else is doing, I think you'll still pretty much get rewarded for it.

- [Presenter] 85-four, your new leader right there, Darian Stevens.

- [Maggie] I think that's why back in the day, so many mogul skiers broke off, and were like, we wanna create this, you know, slope-style and half-pipe, because you know, you have multiple rails that you can choose from.

And then usually it goes into like three jumps, and you get to do whatever you want.

- [landon] There is one other Montana skier that went on to change the whole freestyle world.

(upbeat music) - [Joe] Tanner Hall was a Montana raised kid, and he just took his passion for skiing, and the love of freestyle, and just took it down a new path that people followed.

(upbeat music) - [Maggie] He's from Kalispell, Montana, grew up skiing here at Whitefish.

And obviously he is really what made free skiing what it is today.

- [Heather] So Tanner was this total, I mean, so total opposite of me, right?

Like total phenom from a really young age.

I remember him, I don't know how old he was, let's say 14, throwing sevens in the bumps, and just stomping them.

You know, when I talk about some of my, let's say, frustrations with mogul skiing, and sort of that one-style, Tanner stepped away from that really early, right?

And he wanted total freedom of expression, and he just was very willing to chart his own course, which I really admire.

- [Donovan] If they had had free skiing in the Olympics at that time, he would have won gold medals, no question.

And he could have done it in slope-style and half-pipe.

He like dominated both aspects of that.

There are no skiers that do that anymore.

I think that he's the most influential skier in the last probably 20 years.

(upbeat music) - [Maggie] I think free skiing has not even close to like reaching its potential.

And I think for me to realize that someone from Montana made it so big in free skiing really pushed me that much harder, and made me realize that I could do it too.

- [Joe] We've had these generations and groups of successful skiers, and now we've got, you know, Brad Wilson, Maggie Voisin, and Darian Stevens at the top level of their disciplines.

(board scratches on wooden ramp) - [Joe] Between '94 and '98, Bergy figured out a new way to flip and twist, and qualified for the '98 Olympics.

Wasn't sure how it was gonna work out.

- [Commentator] Bib number four from the USA, this is Eric Bergoust.

- [Eric] In training that day, I landed on my chest.

I thought maybe I broke my ribs.

I couldn't really breathe that well.

- [Andy] And sitting in front of the TV, and watching him was just phenomenal.

I mean, it was like you were there beside him, because you had so much invested in that person.

- [Eric] I said, I am not getting second today.

And I took a couple big steps up.

- [Commentator] This is Eric Bergoust.

(dramatic music) (crowd cheers) (victorious music) - [Eric] The instant I landed, all of the emotion, and everything happened.

It was the best jump I've ever done in my life.

The highest scoring jump anybody's ever got.

- [Commentator] Eric Bergoust.

- [Eric] It was like 0.5 away from perfect score.

So at that point, it's a two jump competition, and both jumps count.

- [Joe] Bergy, you know, he had the highest scoring jump of all time in his first jump.

And for his second jump, he had to put it on his feet, or he wasn't gonna get any medal.

- [Heather] I just remember being so nervous, like heart just pounding.

I was sitting on my, we didn't have a TV in the main area.

So I was in my parents' room.

My parents were at work, I remember, 'cause I called my mom crying, just like hysterically excited.

(tense music) (crowd cheers) (victorious music) - [Eric] I had kept so much inside.

I had suppressed.

It was just, it got harder, and harder, and harder to stay positive, to stay focused, to not let emotions play a role.

(soft music) To land and to actually have all that 10 years of work be worth it was an overwhelming feeling.

- [Commentator 3] Gold medalist Eric Bergoust.

United States of America.

(upbeat music) - [Heather] That was so impactful for me.

'Cause it felt like, well, that could be me.

You know, he's from basically where I'm from.

And it gave me this feeling that it was possible.

(upbeat music) - [Eric] When you forget that you won for a second, and then you remember that you won, that's when it really sinks in.

Because you're looking at it from the perspective of the old you.

And so it's really powerful to forget for a second that it all happened and then, oh my God, I can't believe it.

This is so amazing.

I worked so hard for it.

And I never knew if it was gonna pay off.

(upbeat music) ♪ Look up he's coming ♪ ♪ Walking through the clouds ♪ ♪ He's got a plane of his own ♪ ♪ A house of golden stones ♪ ♪ Lots of diamond rings ♪ ♪ And everything he is the magic man ♪ - [Commentator] An estimated 5,000 people lined the streets of downtown Missoula to honor their Olympic champion.

- [Landon] He triggered an unbelievable event that obviously sent shock waves back to Missoula in Montana.

- [Curt] But I just remember him embracing the community.

He could have ignored this town if he had wanted to, but he didn't.

He came back.

He wanted to be part of it.

He wanted them to feel what he felt.

I think a lot of people did.

A lot of people were really fired up, and really happy about it for him.

- [Andy] Grassroots Montana just won a gold medal in the Olympics, changed everything.

(upbeat music) - [Bryon] He did it, you know, he's from Montana.

He opened our eyes to the sport of freestyle, and really got us thinking and pursuing it.

How do we do this?

And it's possible.

- [landon] 12 Years later at the Vancouver Olympics, you've got another Montanan in the finals.

- [Joe] Bryon went from being driven around by his parents to Homestake pass, and jump sessions all the way now, with the chance to get an Olympic medal.

- [Donovan] It was pouring rain, terrible, bad conditions.

I wouldn't have said that his chances were that good.

(dramatic music) - [Landon] So after Bryon lays down his Olympic run, the score pops up second place.

He has to wait for the next competitors to come down and do their performance, to see where he's ultimately gonna land.

- Bilodeau goes down, then bumps him down.

He goes away from the Olympics with a bronze medal.

- [Brad] Watching him come down and being proud.

You know, proud that he's my brother, and proud that all of that hard work that we did together is paying off.

- [Bryon] Being on the podium, the medal around your neck, you see your flag raised, you see, I saw over in the corner my family, like just cheering, and I'll always have that, it's cool, 'cause I always will have that medal.

And I think that's pretty special.

- [Landon] World championships is every two years, where the Olympic cycle is every four years.

Individually and within your national team, you have to fight for a spot.

You have to compete with your teammates to earn your spot on the world championships team.

Very similar to the Olympic team.

Winning a medal at the world Championships is a huge deal.

- [Commentator] Trace Worthington here alongside Johnny Moseley, and about 5,000 passionate fans at the bottom of Champion here at Deer Valley Resort.

We will settle who wins World Championship Gold right now.

Brad Wilson of the United States.

The toughest draw you can get in the world, on the planet, Mikael Kingsbury.

(upbeat music) Similar tricks on the bottom, Johnny, he gets him on the speed, but what about Kingsbury through the middle section?

This is gonna be tough for the judges.

- [Johnny] It's gonna be tough, 'cause Kingsbury had a very clean middle section.

I think Kingsbury basically resolved at the top.

He's like, I'm not gonna beat Brad Wilson.

He knows Brad Wilson is the fastest skier on the tour when he hangs on.

(tense music) Kingsbury did not win two years ago, but tonight, he is now the 2019 world champion.

(soft music) - [Heather] I had accomplished almost everything I wanted to accomplish.

I did not get an Olympic medal, which was disappointing for me, but I also knew I didn't have four more years to give.

And I didn't think I'd remain competitive for four more years.

- [Bryon] That's I mean, that's the story you don't see when you watch the Olympics.

And it bothers me sometimes, that it's always just focused on the medalist, but in each sport that you watch, there's probably three to four other people from the United States that aren't on that podium, or that there's no podium.

And those people still put in the effort, still made the sacrifices, and are just as good, you know, it just didn't pan out that day.

- [Heather] I think my most successful days win or lose, was when I performed to my potential.

You're the only one who can gauge that.

Right?

So I had times where like Sochi, I can't even remember.

I think I got 13th place.

I was so proud of that run.

It was my success.

In that moment, it was everything I had to give.

And I felt like I was skiing for way more than me.

I was skiing for yes, the United States, but I was skiing for Montana.

I was skiing for Bridger.

- [Maggie] You know, even though I've gone to some Olympics, and I have, you know, medals, X-Games medals, that doesn't change, like, where I come from, and the people I grew up with, and who I am.

- [Darian] Making it to the Olympic team was, you know, it for me.

And I obviously wanted to do well at the Olympics, but I was pretty much gonna be happy as long as I showed up and did what I was capable of doing.

I'd rather, you know, go out swinging than do a 360 in my run.

'Cause that's just like, not really who I am.

- [Bryon] I would hope that we are an extension of the Butte legacy.

I'd be proud to be part of that legacy, because I really identify with the people in the community there.

And I'm proud of the people there.

- [Heather] There are some real icons in the sport from Montana.

- [Joe] Each generation of successful freestyle skiers seems to send the vibe to the next generation.

- [Landon] I have to think in my mind, everything that has happened in freestyle skiing in Montana from the late eighties to now, is all a result of Andy Hayes, that group of people.

- [Male voice] There's Andy Hayes there, and his three beautiful assistants.

- [Landon] At that point in time to now, that's multiple generations of skiers.

The amount of work that Andy's put into this sport, and some of the reasons why we've produced so many freestyle skiers is because of those, you know, in the ditches, in the trenches, especially in a small place like Montana, where we don't have an army, we have Andy Hayes, we were always good.

We just, you know, needed that little direction.

And we found it.

Andy allowed us that stage to perform on.

- [Mike] I think it really took something like that.

Someone like Andy, to kind of see the bigger picture, and realize that there's talent here, that, you know, wasn't like a moneymaker type of thing, but it was more just something that he could offer to the community and to the state.

If it wasn't because of Andy, maybe it would've never even happened.

Maybe we wouldn't have had the Bryons and the Brads, and the Heathers and the Darians and the Maggies.

- [Darian] I kinda just think there's something special about coming from a place that doesn't have everything that you would, you know, just kind of making do with what you have, and still being at the top of your sport.

- [Donovan] You know, the kids that come from my program, we give scholarships to a whole bunch of kids.

Like some of our best skiers right now are scholarship athletes that can't afford to be in the program.

And so like when they are up on the hill training, they're aware that it's a privilege that they get to do those things.

And that you know, if you could just have it handed to you, maybe you don't recognize that as much.

- [Commentator] McPhie with some solid turns through the middle, but Schwartz out in front with the speed.

Schwartz getting bucked around a little bit, as she approaches the bottom jump.

Oh, gets spit out of the line, that's gonna be a big deduction by the judges.

- [Heather] You know, like for me, somebody would be like, oh, are you so excited that somebody fell?

I was like, no, I wanna beat them at their best.

Like, I still wanna win, but I loved watching other people do really well too.

And I learned that from the Bridger program, right?

Like we learned to be a team and support each other.

And if you have a bad day, like you still show up for awards, and you cheer your teammates on, that's what you do.

So you learn all these amazing qualities and life lessons that I think maybe take a little longer to learn otherwise.

- [Brad] Until I made the team and started competing world cups and the Olympics, and that's where I really, kind of understood like, wow, these guys, they really had a lot to give.

And they gave everything to somebody like me, you know, just some kid.

And to understand the importance of the part that they took in freestyle in Montana is easy to respect.

- [Curt] We work hard at this.

We're not here just to mess around, we're gonna work.

We're gonna try our hardest.

We're gonna have a really good time, but we're not just gonna try hard on Saturday on comp day, we're gonna try hard every time we come up here.

And everything's, we're always gonna try our hardest.

- [Mike] Watching them go from a ten-year-old girl that you used to have to buckle her boots to, you know, being in the Olympics a couple of times, and you know, those are things that keep me inspired.

- [People Talking] Good day, Mike.

- Yep.

- [Heather] I still have a voicemail that Papke left me when I made the Olympics, like he was so stoked.

And I feel like we did that, right?

Like, I didn't do any of this on my own, sure it's an individual sport, but it is so not individual.

Like you stand up there in the gate, and you are representing so many people who have helped shape you.

- [Bryon] I love the freestyle skiers in Montana.

Growing up there, my idols, you know, I grew up with my Mike Papke, Tony Gilpin, Donovan Power, all these guys that are just studs at mogul skiing.

It's so fun, but they're also like awesome guys.

They're really cool guys, they're humble.

They're great role models for us.

- [Donovan] If you're goin over from the crest of the mogul into the backside, if you can get early backside pressure and get those edges in there, it's gonna help you get speed control, and it's gonna pull your feet together.

- [Eric] I think sports is a great way for young people to prepare for life, to prepare to be positive contributors to society, to learn how to set goals, and to fail and keep going.

And it's study to figure out how to achieve an extremely difficult goal.

- [Darian] I think it's more about showing people like who you are as a skier, than it is like how many times.

you can stand on top of a wooden podium.

It's very important to encourage younger girls to get into it so we can keep progressing and getting better.

- [Maggie] That's just as important to me as winning any medal, you know, growing up, watching Kaya Turski, Ashley Battersby, you know, these are all girls in free skiing, Devin Logan, and, you know, just seeing how much they inspired me.

I'm one of those girls now, and I get to inspire the next generation.

- [Landon] Montana's unique in that we have a lot of heritage.

Every place has heritage, but our particular story of freestyle skiing in the state of Montana, it truly runs generations.

And it's international.

- [Eric] I think in Montana, people are proud of working hard, and not complaining.

Our sport is extremely challenging, and to have success in that, I think there's pride in Montanans, to see how many athletes per capita that we send on to the national team.

Is a lot compared to most places.

The old fashioned hard work ethic, there's no shortcuts.

You got to get in there and get the job done.

- [Heather] I wore a Made in Montana sticker on my helmet almost every year that I competed.

I skied with my Northern division belt buckle for my entire world cup career.

I was so grounded in knowing who I was and where I was from, and that was very important to me.

(soft music) Anything's possible from here.

Like you might be in this what's seemingly kind of small little microcosm within the grand scheme of things, but people are doing really cool things.

You can do whatever you want from Montana, and then you always get to go home to this really epic place.

(soft music) - [Presenter] Mavericks was made possible by Wendy Roberts, Mike and Sheri Page, Heather Jernberg and Rob Sarfi, the Greater Montana Foundation, encouraging communication on issues, trends, and values of importance to Montanans.

Dennis Slonaker and Elaine Schoyen, Ken and Jenny Younger, Nancy Thompson Flikkema, John and Kim Kircher, Montana Ski Areas Association, Rob Maher and Lynn Peterson-Maher.

And by these generous donors.

(soft music)