As a kid growing up in the Zurich area, Alex Hall, the defending Olympic slopestyle-skiing gold medalist who represents the United States, grew fond of jumping around on skis. But Hall says there weren’t many terrain parks near his home. Hall, his older brother Aldo—a snowboarder—and their buddies needed a place to craft their tricks. So with the blessing of his father Marcus, a professor in the evolutionary biology and environment studies department at the University of Zurich, and mother Elena Conti, an evolutionary biology professor at the school who until recently ran its botanical garden, Hall built one in his own backyard, out of anything he could find, really.
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A lightpost that got bulldozed by a car? No problem: Marcus strapped it to the roof of the family minivan, put it in the yard, and boom, there’s a rail. Pipes, wood, and other random stuff from the garbage all made its way to his makeshift training facility.
“Both my parents weren’t too particular about what the backyard looked like,” says Hall, 27. “My dad would help us dumpster dive.”
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Hall’s gone from the trash heap to the top of the Olympic podium. Born in Anchorage, Alaska, and raised in Switzerland, he also could have competed for Italy, the birthplace of his mother. But he ultimately chose the U.S., due in part to the strength of its freeskiing program, particularly the training facilities in the Salt Lake City area, where Marcus grew up.
That choice has worked out for Hall. In 2025, the six-time X Games gold medalistwon his first slopestyle Crystal Globe, bestowed upon the World Cup performer in a given discipline. Hall won the big air Crystal Globe in 2024. He’ll compete in both the slopestyle and big air events in Livigno, Italy, host of Olympic freestyle skiing.
With the now-retired Shaun Whiteoff the Olympic stage for the first time in two decades, and few male ski racers offering the same Q rating as, say, Lindsey Vonn and Mikaela Shiffrin on the women’s side, the free-spirited, square-jawed Hall could emerge as America’s breakout star on the mountain. Even Vogue has come calling, pairing Hall with model Angelina Kendallfor a photo shoot and article that published in September. While figure skaters Ilia “Quad God” Malinin, speedskater Jordan Stolz, and the NHL-ers returning to the Games will bring plenty of shine to the ice, the snow sports could use a leading man for Milano Cortina.
Enter Hall. “I’m up for it,” he says.
Hall didn’t let his Beijing success swell his head. He keeps his gold medal tucked away in a sock drawer in his Salt Lake City home. “I haven’t looked at it in a long time,” he says during an August interview from Oregon, where he was training for the upcoming Olympic season. “It’s in there somewhere.” He enjoyed a brief sweep of recognition in the weeks after his win—people came up to him in Denver, where he was hanging out with friends, and asked if he was the guy who just won the Olympics. This past summer, he signed with Samsung. Still, his life didn’t change all that much, financially or otherwise, overnight. “Maybe I haven’t done the best job at trying to make it all that it is,” says Hall. “But that’s fine by me too.”
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He seems content to keep pursuing his passions: skiing on the World Cup circuit, as well as in city streets and backcountry spaces all over the world. Hall and his friends film the outings, and these productionshave attracted a following on social media. They ski off mounds, across railings, and down snowy stairwells in urban locales like Calgary, Toronto, Omaha, Neb. and Minot, N.D. “It’s a great reset,” says Hall. “You don’t really think about competing.” The fresh mind, Hall says, then helps him when he’s fighting for World Cup wins.
Christmas has been prime time for street skiing. Businesses are closed, foot traffic is light, snow is on the ground: Hall and his compatriots can be left to their own devices. Hall told TIME last summer he hadn’t been home for the holidays in a half-dozen years. (He spent his past Christmas at his girlfriend’s house; there was no snow for street skiing.) “You’ve gotta capitalize,” he says. One trip to South Dakota in subzero temps did leave them questioning their decisions. “‘We were all just looking at each other like, ‘What are we doing with our lives right now?’” says Hall.
At events, Hall is known for his creativity and aerial flair. His gold-clinching run in Beijingepitomizes his style: he executed a daring “bring back” move, spinning 900 degrees one way, before stopping in midair and spinning 180 degrees the other way. It’s otherwise known as a pretzel rotation. “If it looks like I’m doing something weird, it’s probably on purpose,” says Hall. “If you see something that looks different from something everyone else is doing, if the course is getting ridden in a different way, that’s what I’m going for. Just because it brings me joy.”
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