After finishing ninth in his Olympic debut at the 2002 Games in Salt Lake City, Peterson has come a long way and is now a top medal contender for the U.S. Ski Team in Torino. In this interview, he talks about being the 2005 overall World Cup Champion, his first trip down an aerials run, and what it feels like to fly.

Q1: How were you introduced to the sport of aerials?

JERET PETERSON: It was actually an after school program that I did when I was seven. That’s when I started skiing. I think it was my second or third run ever. My very first instructor started skiing backwards so he could see all the kids skiing. We were supposed to do what the instructor was doing, so I turned around and started skiing backwards. He just kind of looked at me, scratched his head and said, “Wait a second, this is your first time skiing?” I said yes. He said, “You’re not supposed to be able to ski that well.” So, one thing led to another and I joined a freestyle team and started doing moguls skiing, and did little local competitions with other kids on the ski team. They had these two jumps in the middle of the moguls courses. You might as well put a blindfold on me when I am skiing moguls. I am a horrible moguls skier. And then, all of a sudden there were these two jumps and I just loved these jumps. So, I’d go off the jump, and hike back up and go off the jump and hike back up again. I didn’t really care about the moguls in between. That’s when I kind of figured out that maybe I should stick to aerials.

Q2: Do you remember what your first time down an aerials run was like?

JERET PETERSON: I do remember my first jump on snow. I was up top, and I was shaking so bad.  I didn’t think I was gonna be able to even keep my skis straight. I was sitting there at the top, my knees were going, and about to give out. I turned and I went for it. I was coming down just going, “Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh.” And then you get to the jump and your adrenaline just hits you, and you’re in the air, and then once you land…I actually don’t think I did land my very first one, but I tried. I picked up my stuff and I had to get back up there as fast as I could. It was the most fun I’ve ever had in my entire life.

Q3: What does it feel like to fly?

JERET PETERSON: There is no feeling in the entire world like going off an aerial jump and being just weightless. There is one point when you get to the peak of your jump, where you are completely weightless. You don’t have the wind rush. You don’t have anything going. Once you have done enough of them, it’s calm. I can hear people yelling. I can hear little girls screaming down there going, “Whoa”. Yeah, you can hear all that stuff.  Obviously it’s a split second, but it’s very peaceful.

Q4: Tell me about your 2005 World Cup Championship experience? Did it help you build confidence for Torino, or was it just another competition?

JERET PETERSON: Winning the overall Aerial Cup was amazing for me. I couldn’t ask for anything better. Confidence is something that I have had to work on in my career, and there is nothing like winning. You look at yourself and you’re like, “See, I told you you could do it, let’s go do it again, and again, and again, and again.” Because everybody loves to win, nobody goes out for second place. Yeah, it was a huge confidence builder for me.

Q5: Your bio says that you’re focusing a lot on your landing and your technique. How important is technique to the sport of aerials?

JERET PETERSON: Technique is huge. Much like a diver, you have to have the right form, or you’re not gonna be able to even do the trick. Obviously part of our judging criteria, you have to be able to twist and finish it in the right time, stop it, and do whatever combination of flips and twists that you have told the judges you are going to do. The most important part of aerials is being able to land. If you don’t land a jump, it doesn’t matter how beautiful it was in the air, you’re not gonna get scored anything.

Q6: How does trampoline jumping with the Flying Aces help you with your training?

JERET PETERSON: Jumping with Flying Ace productions has been awesome for me. Doing the trampoline shows is something that we do mostly for fun, but it also helps us out in our training. It gives us air awareness. It helps you relate to your body in a different sense, on a trampoline versus being on snow. It builds a lot of body awareness, which is huge in our sport.

Q7: Can you tell me a little bit about your nickname “Speedy”, and how you got that?

JERET PETERSON: The nickname “Speedy” started when I was eleven years old, ironically with Trace and Fuzz, who were my very first coaches, and now my bosses at Flying Ace productions. I had a checkered life jacket and a big old racing helmet. Trace and another guy named Kip saw me and, and I really didn’t have the concept of waiting in line at that point, so I’d run to the front. Speed Racer was really big on MTV at that time, and I’d go and watch it with those guys on television. They started calling me Speed Racer, and it shortened to “Speedy”, the nickname just stuck, and some people don’t even know that my real name is Jeret.

Q8: It takes a bit of a daredevil to be good at your sport. Does that personality show up anywhere else in your life? 
 
JERET PETERSON: I have two speeds in my life, stop and go. I like to fly fish, play the harmonica, sleep, skydive, do wheelies down the highway on my motorcycle and race cars. So yeah, I really do have two speeds with everything that I do, stop and go.

Q9: If you could compete in any other Winter Olympic sport, which one would you choose?

JERET PETERSON: I think if I competed in any other sport it would be downhill racing, because I love adrenaline, and I love the speed, and there’s nothing like getting to travel all around the world to these amazing beautiful mountains and go as fast as you can.

Q10: Do you remember the first time you ever met an Olympic medalist and what that experience was like?

JERET PETERSON: The first time I ever met an Olympic medalist was Eric Bergoust. I had known him previously. He was one of my teammates, and then he came home as an Olympic medalist. All the sudden he was a brand new hero that I’d never had. It was great getting to see him, and he was very nice and polite and let us wear it. I was young in 1998 when he won his medal. I was only 16 at the time, so I was just ecstatic to even see this thing. It was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen. That’s when I realized that I want to get one of those for myself.