Island-raised Teal Harle is a daring skier who makes the wickedest jumps. He’s medalled in World Cup freestyle skiing six times. Two weeks ago, he won bronze at the Winter X Games in Aspen, Colorado.
But these Olympics just didn’t go well.
In the big air skiing event, Teal Hearle came 31st out of 31 skiers. He crash-landed on all three jumps. The last crash was so bad his skis exploded off his boots.
“Not my best day today,” Harle said on his Instagram. “A couple of small overcorrections ended up in full crashes that took away my chance at Big Air finals. I had a lot more planned and super bummed to not have a chance to show something cool in finals.”
But part of being an Olympic athlete is getting back up even when things go really wrong.
So Harle geared up for his second event, slopestyle skiing.
But after some disappointing jumps, he came in 26th.
He might not have had a great Olympics. But there’s no doubt this kid can ski.
Harle is also super passionate about being from VanIsle. He even works as a fishing guide in the summer.
We expect he’ll be back on the slopes soon. Of course, he might have to wait another four years for a crack at an Olympic medal, but there are still lots of tricks to perfect and jumps to land.
And if you can’t wait another four years to see Harle ski again, then watch this utterly bananas jump from his silver medal at the Chur Big Freeski Big Air World Cup last year.
He lands backwards. What else can we say?
