U.S. Olympic Skier Jeret "Speedy" Peterson Found Dead

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/27/sports/skiing/jeret-speedy-peterson-commits-su...

The New York Times...

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July 26, 2011
Troubled Olympian Kills Himself, Police Say
By BILL PENNINGTON

Jeret Peterson, a charismatic, pioneering United States Winter Olympian who won a silver medal in the freestyle aerials during the 2010 Vancouver Games, was found dead in a remote Utah canyon Monday night in what police are calling a suicide.

Peterson, who was known as Speedy, called 911 to relate where he was before shooting himself, the police said.

Peterson, 29, battled alcoholism and depression throughout his adult life. He had been cited for drunken driving Friday in Hailey, Idaho, and pleaded not guilty.

The police said his body was found between Salt Lake City and Park City, and a suicide note was found near his car.

Peterson’s time with the United States Ski Team was full of brilliant success, daring spirit, and turmoil off the mountain. A gold medal favorite in the 2006 Turin Olympics, he was in position to win the aerials in the final jumping stage when he chose to boldly attempt his signature jump. Known as the Hurricane, it had five dangerous twists and three flips.

He landed it ever so slightly off balance, touching his right hand to the snow, and finished seventh.

Making matters worse, Peterson was in a bar fight later that night with a friend who was visiting Italy. When the police report of the scuffle became public, the ski team, already under fire for not curbing the late-night hours Bode Miller had been keeping, asked Peterson to leave the Olympic Village.

Peterson retreated from competition in the next year, working in construction in Idaho. He said he rebuilt his life and jumping career by giving up alcohol and by coming to grips with demons he had carried through adulthood — a good friend had committed suicide in front of him in 2005, and his 5-year-old sister had been killed by a drunken driver.

In an 2010 interview at a World Cup event in Lake Placid, N.Y., a month before the Vancouver Olympics, Peterson said: “I’m a different person now, and you couldn’t pay me $10 million to go back to being the person I was in 2006.”

Peterson got his nickname at a training camp in Lake Placid when he was 11 because he liked to cut the lift lines so he could get in more jumps, and because he wore an adult helmet that was a little too big for his 5-foot-9 frame. Coaches said he reminded them of the cartoon character Speed Racer.

At the Vancouver Olympics, Peterson was not perfect with his jumps but was good enough to finish second. He stood on the medals podium with tears streaming down his face.

Afterward, he said, “I know that a lot of people go through a lot of things in their life, and I just want them to realize they can overcome anything.”

United States Ski Team officials said Tuesday that Peterson had decided not to compete in 2012 and was enrolled as a business student at Westminster College in Salt Lake City.

“Today is a sad day in our sport,” Bill Marolt, the chief executive officer of the United States Ski Team, said in a statement. “Jeret ‘Speedy’ Peterson was a great champion who will be missed and remembered as a positive, innovative force on not only his sport of freestyle aerials, but on the entire U.S. Freestyle Ski Team family and everyone he touched.”

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Photo: Bela Szandelszky/Associated Press

Jeret Peterson celebrating his silver medal at the Vancouver Games. Peterson was found dead in Utah on Monday night.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/othersports/2015736996_digs27.html

The Seattle Times...

Originally published Tuesday, July 26, 2011 at 7:10 PM

Police call U.S. freestyle skier Jeret 'Speedy' Peterson's death a suicide

U.S. freestyle skier Jeret "Speedy" Peterson, an Olympic silver medalist, was found dead in a remote canyon in Utah in what police are calling a suicide.

Freestyle skier Jeret 'Speedy' Peterson was found dead.

Skiing

Police call Olympic medalist Peterson's death a suicide

Olympic silver medalist Jeret "Speedy" Peterson was found dead in a remote canyon in Utah in what police are calling a suicide.

Peterson, a freestyle skier who took second place at last year's Vancouver Olympics, called 911 before shooting himself, police said. The 29-year-old had been cited for drunken driving Friday in Hailey, Idaho, and had pleaded not guilty.

Officers found Peterson's body Monday night in Lambs Canyon, between Salt Lake City and Park City. Police said a suicide note was found near Peterson's car; they declined to reveal what it said.

Peterson, who was from Boise, Idaho, previously had revealed problems with alcohol and depression and admitted he had thoughts of suicide, all stemming from a childhood in which he was sexually abused and lost his 5-year-old sister to a drunken driver.

http://espn.go.com/olympics/skiing/story/_/id/6806070/olympic-skier-jeret-speedy...

ESPN...

Updated: July 26, 2011, 10:21 PM ET
Police: Jeret 'Speedy' Peterson kills self

Associated Press

SALT LAKE CITY -- Olympic silver medalist Jeret "Speedy" Peterson was found dead in a remote canyon in Utah in what police are calling a suicide.

One of the world's most risk-taking and innovative freestyle skiers, the creator of the one-of-a-kind "Hurricane" called 911 before shooting himself, police said. The 29-year-old had been cited for drunken driving Friday in Hailey, Idaho, and had pleaded not guilty.

Officers found Peterson late Monday night between Salt Lake City and Park City in Lambs Canyon. Police said a suicide note was found near Peterson's car; they declined to reveal what it said.

"Regardless of the amazing stuff he did skiing, it was the stuff he did for other people that was incredible to me," said Peterson's longtime coach and friend, Matt Christensen. "A lot of people saw his story and said he must be a wild jackass and a cowboy. He was just the opposite."

He was one of the most colorful of athletes, and he wore his heart on his sleeve -- never more than on Feb. 25, 2010, when he walked off the mountain with tears streaming down his face after taking the Olympic silver medal.

"I know that a lot of people go through a lot of things in their life, and I just want them to realize they can overcome anything," Peterson said that night. "There's light at the end of the tunnel and mine was silver and I love it."

It was a poignant chapter to a career that, until then, had been filled with success on the smaller stages of his fringe sport but defined in the mainstream by his moment at the Torino Olympics where, after finishing seventh, he was sent home early after a minor scuffle with a buddy in the street.

Over the next months and years, he began filling in the details of a life story replete with incredible highlights and crushing disappointments.

While in Italy, he was still reeling from the suicide of a friend, who shot himself in front of Peterson only months before.

Peterson also had problems with alcohol and depression and admitted he had his own thoughts of suicide, all stemming from a childhood in which he was sexually abused and lost his 5-year-old sister to a drunken driver.

He picked up his nickname as a young boy because the big helmet he wore reminded his coaches of Speed Racer of cartoon fame.

But as his career progressed, he became better known for his signature jump, the "Hurricane" -- five twists packed into three somersaults as he vaulted off the snowy ramp and flew 50 feet in the air.

It was high-risk, high-reward, and once Peterson started working on it in 2004, he insisted he'd have it no other way. It was a sight to behold when he landed it, and the judges rewarded him for taking the chance. Helped by the huge difficulty marks for the jump, he still holds the two-jump scoring record of 268.70, set at Deer Valley in January 2007.

"I've worked with amazing athletes who have taken a lot of calculated risks," Christensen said. "One thing I admired about Speedy is he never gave up on me. From the time I first started talking to him about five twists, he never gave up on it. He just kept doing it."

On many days, it set him up to finish first or last -- but nowhere in between.

He had seven wins on the World Cup circuit and was the 2005 World Cup champion and a three-time American champion.

But the stats and the medals were only a fraction of the story.

Born with the heart of a gambler, he took that passion to Las Vegas and won $550,000 playing blackjack one night in the pre-Torino days. But within years, he was virtually broke again after giving some of it away and losing even more in the tanking real estate market.

Trying to decide whether he wanted to stay in the sport after Torino, he took time off and started working in the construction business -- a place, he said, where he could see the effort of a hard day's work without having to walk into the video room the next day and break it down on the screen.

He also got sober and said last year that he had stopped drinking.

It was all a precursor to his return to his passion -- skiing. He recommitted leading up to Vancouver. And what a payoff. He came in second that night but hardly felt like a runner-up.

"I do it because I want to be the person I know I can be," he said. "I've really changed things around in the last 3½ years. This is my medal for everything I've overcome, and I'm ecstatic."

US Ski Team CEO Bill Marolt called Tuesday "a sad day in our sport."

"Jeret 'Speedy' Peterson was a great champion who will be missed and remembered as a positive, innovative force on not only his sport of freestyle aerials but on the entire U.S. Freestyle Ski Team family and everyone he touched," Marolt said.

This year, Peterson was enrolled at Westminster College in Salt Lake City, working on a degree while he took some time off and decided if he wanted to re-up for 2014. He had signed a deal as a spokesman for the onion industry and was featured in a fun video on YouTube cooking up a so-called "Hurricane Burger."

"He only has two speeds," it says at the start of the video. "Stop and go."

Peterson's message to almost anyone he talked to was to take chances, to never settle for ordinary. And in a sport known for its risk-takers and daredevils, Peterson still stood out. Maybe the most fitting tribute is that seven years after he first started trying to push his sport forward with the "Hurricane," only a small handful of skiers will try anything that risky.

"Over the course of your career, you hope you get an athlete or maybe two athletes like him," Christensen said, "and he was one of those guys."

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http://www.usatoday.com/sports/olympics/2011-07-26-skiing-jeret-speedy-peterson-...

USA Today...

Olympian Jeret 'Speedy' Peterson commits suicide, police say
Updated 3h 14m ago

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Olympic silver medalist Jeret "Speedy" Peterson was found dead in a remote canyon in Utah in what police are calling a suicide.

Photo: The USA's Jeret Peterson celebrates his second jump in the men's aerial finals which won him a silver medal in 2010.

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By Jack Gruber, USA TODAY

The USA's Jeret Peterson celebrates his second jump in the men's aerial finals which won him a silver medal in 2010.

Peterson, a freestyle skier who patented the so-called "Hurricane" and took second place in aerials at the Vancouver Games with it, called 911 before shooting himself, police said. The 29-year-old had been cited for drunken driving Friday in Hailey, Idaho and had pleaded not guilty.

Officers found Peterson late Monday night between Salt Lake City and Park City in Lambs Canyon. Police said a suicide note was found near Peterson's car; they declined to reveal what it said.

"The entire Olympic family is heartbroken to hear the news of Jeret "Speedy" Peterson's untimely passing," U.S. Olympic Committee CEO Scott Blackmun said in a statement. "I know Speedy's friends and family were incredibly proud of his effort in Vancouver, and his achievements were an inspiration to people all over the world. The personal challenges Speedy has battled are familiar to all of us, and on behalf of the U.S. Olympic Committee, I'd like to offer my sympathy to Speedy's family and friends. Today is a sad day."

He was one of the most colorful of athletes, and he wore his heart on his sleeve — never more than on Feb. 26, 2010, when he walked off the mountain after taking second place — the silver medal — with tears streaming down his face.

"I know that a lot of people go through a lot of things in their life, and I just want them to realize they can overcome anything," Peterson said that night. "There's light at the end of the tunnel and mine was silver and I love it."

It was a poignant closing chapter to a career that, until then, had been filled with success on the smaller stages of his fringe sport but defined in the mainstream by his moment at the Turin Olympics where, after finishing seventh, he was sent home early after a minor scuffle with a buddy in the street.

Over the next months and years, he began telling his story.

In Italy, he was still reeling from the suicide of a friend, who had shot himself in front of Peterson only months before.

Peterson also had problems with alcohol and depression and admitted he had his own thoughts of suicide, all stemming from a childhood in which he was sexually abused and lost his 5-year-old sister to a drunken driver.

"Today is a sad day in our sport," Bill Marolt, the CEO of the U.S. ski team, said in a statement Tuesday. "Jeret 'Speedy' Peterson was a great champion who will be missed and remembered as a positive, innovative force on not only his sport of freestyle aerials, but on the entire U.S. Freestyle Ski Team family and everyone he touched."

Peterson got his nickname because of the big helmet he wore, one that made him look like Speed Racer of cartoon fame.

But quickly, he became better known for the "Hurricane"— a triple-twisting, double-flipping trick off the snowy ramp that was more difficult than anything anyone else would try.

It was high-risk, high-reward, and Peterson always insisted he'd have it no other way. It was a sight to behold when he landed it and the judges rewarded it. Helped by the huge difficulty marks for the jump, he still holds the two-jump scoring record of 268.70, set at Deer Valley in January 2007.

He had seven wins on the World Cup circuit, was the 2005 World Cup champion and a three-time American champion.

But the stats and the medals were only a fraction of the story.

Born with the heart of a gambler, he took that passion to Las Vegas and won $550,000 playing blackjack one night. But within years, he had given some of it away and lost even more in the tanking real estate market.

Trying to decide whether he wanted to stay in the sport after Turin, he took time off and started working in the construction business — a place, he said, where he could see the effort of a hard day's work without having to walk into the video room the next day and break it down on the TV screen.

He also got sober and said last year that he had stopped drinking.

It was all a precursor to his return to his passion — skiing. He recommitted leading up to Vancouver. And what a payoff. He came in second that night, but hardly felt like a runner-up.

"I do it because I want to be the person I know I can be," he said. "I've really changed things around in the last 3½ years. This is my medal for everything I've overcome, and I'm ecstatic."

Bobsledder Steve Mesler was one of the thousands who was inspired watching Peterson that night.

"I'll never forget watching him live his dream last February," Mesler said on his Facebook page. "RIP one of the most inspirational people I've ever known."

More recently, Peterson was enrolled at Westminster College in Salt Lake City, working on a degree while he took some time off and decided if he wanted to re-up for 2014. He was at the U.S Ski Team headquarters about a month ago, where he gave a speech that U.S. Ski Team spokesman Tom Kelly said was, typically, "fantastic."

Peterson's message to almost anyone he talked to was to take chances, to never settle for ordinary. And in a sport known for its risk-takers and daredevils, Peterson still stood out. Maybe the most fitting tribute is that nearly a decade after he first started trying to push his sport forward with the "Hurricane," there still isn't a skier who will try anything more daring.

"He was about setting a standard for his sport," Kelly said. "He put that jump out there and nobody else really ever challenged him on it."

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http://www.deseretnews.com/article/700166196/Olympian-Jeret-Peterson-made-me-smi...

Deseret News...

Olympian Jeret Peterson made me smile
Published: Tuesday, July 26, 2011 10:17 p.m. MDT

By Amy Donaldson, Deseret News

Photo: Jeret Peterson (Speedy) is greeted by friends at the Salt Lake City International Aiport on Monday, March 1, 2010. Jeret won a silver medal in the men's aerials during the 2010 Winter Olympics. Monday, March 1, 2010.
Michael Brandy, Michael Brandy, Deseret News

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Jeret "Speedy" Peterson had the kind of smile that you couldn't help but return.

He'd flash that grin, and you found yourself, without even considering why, smiling back at him.

Polite, accommodating, effusive and funny, Speedy seemed to wear his heart on his sleeve. A three-time Olympian, the aerial skier had talent, good looks, success and personality to spare.

It seemed impossible that such a bright light would know anything about the dark torment of depression.

But he did.

Five months after his greatest professional triumph — an Olympic silver medal — the Boise native who lived and trained in Park City lost his battle with a disease that has haunted him most of his adult life. In an isolated section of Lamb's Canyon on Monday night, police said he called 911 and then took his own life with a single gunshot.

"Depression is an interesting beast," he told me about a month before the Vancouver Winter Olympics. "It really is. It's something that is very misunderstood, and it creeps up on you slowly."

Unlike a broken arm or physical ailment, it is harder to see, harder to understand, harder to heal.

"It's one day you're like, 'Holy cow! I'm depressed'," said Peterson, who was studying business at Westminster at the time of his death. "Figuring out what works has been very difficult. Figuring out how to fix it has been very difficult."

He took time away from the sport he loved twice hoping to heal his broken heart.

When he landed the trick that had come to define his career — the Hurricane — in Vancouver, it looked like he'd finally succeeded in banishing those demons. He had not landed the five twists and three flips in competition since he set a world record (which still stands) at Deer Valley in 2007, and attempting to do it in the Torino games had cost him a medal.

"It shows people I can do things that they say I can't," he said choking back emotion. "To me, it's dumping a lot of things from my past. It allows me to tell myself that it's OK. It's not so much about the medal; it's not about the podium. It's about everything that I've been able to overcome. It's what it represents to me. Do I think it's awesome? You bet."

Before going to the Olympic Games in Vancouver, he was candid about his mistakes — which included being sent home early from the 2006 Olympics after engaging in a drunken brawl.

"This (Olympics) is very special for me," he said while signing autographs during a break in his training. "So many things in my life have been very difficult and challenging. For me to be able to overcome those and still end up on top, really means a lot to me. I do give myself a pat on the back for being able to realize my dreams one more time. And it's something that hasn't really come easily."

Counseling, medication and vitamins, he said, helped him regain control of his life.

"I've had all kinds of difficulties," said Peterson, who also lost an older sister to a drunken driver when he was five. "I've had depression; I've had suicide attempts; I had a roommate of mine commit suicide in front of me. I've had trouble with alcohol that I've gotten taken care of. I am really happy with how I am, and where I am these days."
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That trouble, it seemed, resurfaced recently when he was arrested on Friday for speeding and driving while intoxicated in Hailey, Idaho. Three days later he was dead at 29.

When I heard about his death, I thought of all of our conversations in the last decade, but most recently about his struggles with alcohol and depression. I couldn't help but think of his victories, of the moments when he got the better of his demons — and the elements — and of what he told me he'd take away from the sport win or lose in Vancouver.

"I'm young," he said. "I'm having fun, and that's what really counts to me. When I'm not having fun, that's when I'll hang up the skis. But no matter what, I really can walk away from this sport knowing that I caused people to push the envelope, that I helped push that progression."