Q1: Is there anything specific that Colorado Springs offers for your training? And, where else have you trained?

Jeremy Bloom: Every time I come here, it really allows me to focus on training. The last three years I was in Boulder, Colo. with the University of Colorado football team. Now I’m going into new territory in the sense that I’ve never had these months dedicated to ski training. We go to Chile in the summer and that’s my favorite place to ski because the snow is so good. I also like to go to Whistler Blackcomb in Canada.

Q2: How has your training for 2006 differed from 2002?

Jeremy Bloom: In 2002, I really over-trained. I wanted to kill myself and do everything because that’s just the mentality that I have. This year I’m taking a much smarter approach to my training. It’s still difficult but I’m giving myself enough time to recover each day so I’m building instead of regressing.

I focus mainly on the objective at hand. I try not to think too far ahead. For instance, for every set I do, I’m not thinking about the Olympics or thinking about some competition. I just take it one day at time. I do weightlifting, plyometrics, a lot of core strength and stability like Pilates.

Q3: What’s the hardest trick you’ve learned?

Jeremy Bloom: Probably a D-Spin. Once our sport went inverted and I was going off the same jumps for 15 years and never going inverted, it was a difficult learning curve, but now it’s one of the easiest tricks I do. Right now, I’m working on some fun tricks that are really hard. I was in Park City, Utah at the water ramps doing some off-access 1080s and D-spins. But I was landing on my head more than on my feet so I probably won’t be doing those any time soon.

Q4:  Can you give me any tips on how to ski moguls?

Jeremy Bloom: The most important thing to do while skiing moguls is to find a good line. If you look at a normal mogul field, you have to find a rhythmic line because it is much more difficult if you are skiing outside of where people are turning in a rhythm. So once you find a good rhythm, it’s much easier to ski.

Q5: What are you looking forward to this upcoming season? And who is your biggest competition?

Jeremy Bloom: The World Championships as far as it being the biggest competition. I’m also looking forward to having a full year of training before the Olympics. I’ll be able to try new things and just have fun.

Right now, the guy to beat is Janne Lahtela from Finland. He’s a heck of a skier and a heck of a competitor. But I got a big enough challenge just to compete with the U.S. Ski Team because we have six or seven in the Top 12 in the world.

Q6: What is your biggest accomplishment thus far?

Jeremy Bloom: It would definitely be a World Championship because I’m the only American to win that title in skiing and I did it on a course that I had a lot of problems with at the Olympics. For football, it would be getting named First Team Freshman All-American. That was a big honor for me.

Q7: What did it feel like to be the youngest person named to the U.S. Ski Team at the age of 15 in 1997?

Jeremy Bloom: It was a dream come true for me. I remember the day I got the phone call from my coach who told me I was on the U.S. Ski Team and I freaked out. The two things that I wanted to do were to make the U.S. Team and play college football.

Q8: Who is your idol?

Jeremy Bloom: John Elway. He inspired me to be great in football and skiing at such a young age. He’s a humble leader that did his talking on the field and I always admired that about him.

Q9: How hard was it to make the decision not to play college football anymore? And is there any chance that you’ll play football on a different level?

Jeremy Bloom: I didn’t make that decision, the NCAA did. When they told me that it was over, it was the most frustrating feeling I’ve ever felt. I’ve worked every single day and dreamed about playing football all the time and this was something that I gained, an opportunity for me to have, and for them to take that away is really something that’s hard to deal with. As far as playing again, after the Olympics in 2006, I’ll be draft eligible. So if I want to play football, the NFL will give me that opportunity.

Q10: How were you approached to model for Tommy Hillfiger?

Jeremy Bloom: After the Olympics, my agent got a phone call and they wanted me to do an ad campaign. I do athletics because I love it, I do SOME modeling for the money. There’s no secret about it. Being a skier, the market value sometimes isn’t high and in the world of fashion, modeling is ridiculous in how much money you can make. So I try to balance it to the point where I don’t want to be labeled as a model. Ya know, I’m an athlete first, but if I get offered those opportunities to model then I’m going to take advantage of them. I’m not really doing anything with Tommy now, but I just did something with Abercrombie for a thing called “Rising Stars” that I did with some actors.