by sportswriter He Leijing
LIVIGNO, Italy, Feb. 7 (Xinhua) -- When Alex Hall clipped into his skis at the Milan-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics, the weight of an Olympic title was nowhere on his shoulders.
The reigning Olympic men's slopestyle champion said he arrived at the Games not as a defender of gold, but as a skier chasing the same feeling that first pulled him into the sport.
That mindset carried the 27-year-old American comfortably into Monday's slopestyle final after he scored 71.63 points to place eighth in Saturday's qualification.
Hall's approach is disarmingly simple: treat the Olympics like any other major contest. Medals, expectations and history are secondary. What matters for him is skiing freely and having fun doing it.
"I don't really think about defending anything," Hall said ahead of competition. "It's cool I got a medal four years ago, but I'm just here to ride."
Now at his third Olympic Games, Hall said the stage may be grander, but the task is unchanged. He sees little difference between the Games and any other major event. The course is still a slopestyle course, shaped by rails and jumps, subject to wind, weather and variables no skier can fully control.
The lack of certainty is part of what keeps Hall grounded. In a discipline where conditions shift by the minute and judging leaves room for interpretation, he learned not to anchor his motivation to results alone. Freestyle skiing, he believes, is something closer to an art form than a rigid sport.
SKI OUTSIDE THE BOX
Hall's philosophy paid off at Beijing 2022. In the slopestyle final, he leaned into instinct rather than strategy, opening with a bold, high-risk first run that included a double cork 1080 into a 900. The gamble was enough to secure Olympic gold, freeing him from the pressure of chasing points later in the contest.
Looking back, Hall described that run as a turning point, a moment when he stopped skiing for judges and started skiing for himself. "I just went with my gut," he recalled. "I skied the way I love instead of being driven by what the judges may like."
Hall's distinctive approach can be traced to an unconventional path into the sport. Born in Alaska to an American father and an Italian mother, he spent much of his childhood in Switzerland. He did not follow a traditional development pipeline, never came through formal coaching systems and never skied for a structured team.
Instead, he taught himself. In his backyard, he built makeshift rails out of wood and PVC pipes. He absorbed ideas from 3D art and ceramics. He learned alongside his brother, a strong snowboarder, dissecting online videos and experimenting through trial and error.
Even football, his first sporting passion growing up in Switzerland, influenced how he views movement, creativity and space on snow.
MOTIVATED BY CHINA'S GU
At Milan-Cortina 2026, Hall is skiing into a sport reshaped by global attention. He gave credit to the surge sparked by Chinese star skier Gu Ailing, whose two golds and one silver at Beijing 2022 dramatically expanded freestyle skiing's audience worldwide.
Hall witnessed that impact firsthand in China, where viewership soared as Gu captured the public imagination. Her success, he said, brought new eyes and new possibilities to a sport long confined to niche audiences.
What impresses him, however, is not her fame but her work ethic. He recalled training days in New Zealand when brutal weather turned sessions into casual laps for most athletes, only to see Gu relentlessly hiking a single rail through snowstorms, focused on perfecting one trick.
"That part's cool," Hall said in an interview. "Despite all of her success, she just wants to get better."
For Hall, Gu's rise underscores a broader truth that elite performance does not require sacrificing curiosity or balance. Skiing can coexist with other passions, ambitions and ways of pushing oneself.
As one of the most experienced freeskiers on the circuit, Hall hopes the sport's growing visibility translates into lasting benefits for athletes - more revenue, more opportunity and a stronger foundation for the next generation.
"Eileen [Gu]'s success gives us a platform," he said. "Now it's about using it to uplift the sport for everyone."
For now, though, Hall's focus remains unchanged. Titles can wait. Expectations can fade. All that matters is the next run, and the joy of the ride. ■
