Q1: What are your expectations going into Salt Lake?

Eric Bergoust: Yes, I can defend my gold, the question is, will I? I’m doing everything I can to be more prepared than I was in Nagano. I didn’t feel like I was way prepared. I was lucky to pull out a couple of the best jumps I’ve ever done that day and I learned a lot from that so I spent more time training and I was more determined the past couple summers to be more prepared for Salt Lake. I feel really good.

Q2: Who is your main competition?

Eric Bergoust: The Canadians and the Belarussians are good. The group from Belarus are awesome. There are two guys there from Canada and a couple of development guys. Of course, Nicholas Fontaine who won the World Cup overall four times in a row. In the U.S. – Joe Pack, Britt Swartley, Jerry Grossi, Mariano Ferrario, Brian Current – they’re all good. I would say about six of us have a good shot at winning a medal. It isn’t unrealistic for the U.S. on the men’s side to sweep the podiums. We have a good shot at doing that. We’re all capable, we did it at the Goodwill Games and that’s what we hope to do.

Q3: Can you imagine how cool it would be to win in Salt Lake in light of Sept. 11?

Eric Bergoust: I can’t. The symbol of the American flag has changed a lot for me in the last month or two. I don’t think that’s going to wear off anytime soon in our country. It’s going to be something really special, a lot more special than it was in Nagano, especially being on our home turf. It will be nice if that happens.

Q4: Tell us about your talk show, The Air Bergy Show, on usolympicteam.com.

Eric Bergoust: I was really worried about how I was doing hosting that show but I have been talking to the guys I’ve been working with and they’re said it’s the best thing on the site and no one has anything like that on their Olympic site. I guess I’m doing an okay job. I spend a lot of time thinking about the questions and weeding them out. I try to be entertaining and catch people off guard. It’s definitely a learning experienc

e and it’s a challenge for me to do something like that. I can’t tell if it’s good or bad because I’m right in the middle.

Q5:What should TV viewers look for when watching your event?

Eric Bergoust: The easiest thing to look for to tell who is good and bad is the landing. If you land cleanly, you’re probably going to do well. The second thing to look for is the form in the air. We like to have straight arms and legs as often as possible; legs together, no daffy or scissors or spreading the legs. That’s about it. It’s pretty easy to try to pick your winner if you’re at home. Also, the degree of difficulty plays a big part. If someone is flipping or twisting really slowly in the air and it doesn’t look like they are going fast they’re probably not going to do as well. Look for lots of twists, straight body and clean landing. That’s what we’re all trying to do.

Q6: Do you have any quick tips for up-and-coming freestyle aerialists?

Eric Bergoust: Three tips: One, don’t get cocky. If you get too cocky, Mother Nature will take care of that real quick. Two, learn the basics and go back to the basics often. Make sure that your foundation is good. The easy tricks are good and you keep going back to the easy tricks. Three, train hard and work hard. Work harder than anybody else.

Q7:What the coolest thing about freestyle aerials?

Eric Bergoust: The coolest thing about my sport is that we do more flips and twists than any other acrobatic sport or any other sport in the world without a parachute.

Q8: What was it like for you early in your career?

Eric Bergoust: Early in my career I would have to spend, well, the two months before my first year competing on a town in the winter time. I spent 70 hours a week, 3 weeks without a single day off and 14 hours a day, just to make enough money to compete. The best thing where I’m at now is to have sponsors help me pay for my expenses and I don’t have to worry about anything except basically jumping well and that made it easier for me to jump well and improve my skills on a daily basis. It’s really nice because that is all I’ve ever wanted to do was jump better. I used to train as hard as I could and take as many jumps as I could on water and go all summer long. A lot of times I would run out of time because I had to go to work. I don’t have to do that anymore. I can train as much as I want.

Q9: Tell us something about yourself that people don’t know?

Eric Bergoust: I’m hairy (laughs). I wear a sweater vest under this shirt. I always have a sweater vest on. That’s about it.

Q10: Do you remember your first job or oddest job?

Eric Bergoust: Shoveling driveways was my first job when I was eight years old. As far as my oddest job it would have to be any of the following: I was a janitor, draftsman, fence repairer, house scraper and painter, envelope stuffer, lawn mower, hedge trimmer, rock picker upper, post hole digger, house constructor, dock builder, bus boy, fry cook, steak cook, prep cook, waiter, ditch digger, window washer, insulation installer, wood chopper, horse feeder, hay bucker, irrigation pipe mover, paper boy, ice cream bar salesman, ski tuner, tennis racket stringer, bike mechanic, coach, aerial jump builder, retail clothing salesman, ski and boot salesman, telemarketer and pizza maker.