Patrick Deneen is a freestyle skiing athlete competing at the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
Patrick Deneen wasn't exactly looking like a soon-to-be world champion when he finished 47th at a World Cup moguls event in Mont Gabriel, Canada, on January 24, 2009. Nor was he looking particularly dominant when he placed 45th at a World Cup in Deer Valley, Utah, one week later. Apparently the solution was as simple as traveling to the other side of the world. At the 2009 World Championships in Inawashiro, Japan, the 21-year-old American broke through to claim a surprise world title. The victory represented a significant step forward for Deneen, who never previously had finished better than third in a World Cup race, a feat he had accomplished four times.
Deneen was just 11 months and two days old when his father—then a co-owner and general manager of a ski resort in Washington state—placed him on skis for the first time. He began as an alpine skier but became intrigued by freestyle. "It just looked like so much fun," Deneen explains. "And I tried it, and it was even more fun than it looked." Deneen gave up another athletic endeavor—competitive horseback riding—to focus exclusively on skiing at age 15. Being home-schooled afforded Deneen the chance to ski as many as 190 days a year, and at age 17 in January 2005, he competed in his first World Cup event, finishing 48th due to a combination of nerves and equipment trouble. "I pushed out of the gate, skied three turns, and the next thing I know, my ski clicks off, I fall into the first air," Deneen recalls.
In January 2008, Deneen returned to Lake Placid for the first time since his inauspicious World Cup debut. "It was pretty nerve-wracking going there, knowing that the last time I was there, I fell flat on my face," he says. "But I came there with so much fire." Deneen's intensity translated to back-to-back third-place finishes, his first top-three finishes on the World Cup circuit. Less than a week later, Deneen's run in Mont Gabriel, Quebec, "wasn't the cleanest, but it was one of the faster runs of the day." That speed, which has become Deneen's trademark as a skier, prompted 1994 Olympic moguls champion Jean-Luc Brassard of Canada to nickname the American "The Rocket." After that season, during which Deneen placed fifth in the World Cup moguls standings, international coaches voted him 2008 FIS World Cup Rookie of the Year.
Deneen's hometown, Cle Elum, Washington, is on the eastern slopes of the Cascade Mountains. "The actual meaning of Cle Elum is swift water," Deneen explains. "We have rivers. We have fishing... Even if you're not catching anything, there's so much wildlife that hangs around." There's also a significant amount of animal life around Deneen's home, due to the fact that his mother raises quarter horses and border collies. "This year, my dad actually built a jump site at my house," Deneen says. "We have a bunch of dogs that run out there, and as I'm training I'm going down to do my jump, and I have three border collies running down after me, chasing me down the hill."
Patrick Deneen wasn't exactly looking like a soon-to-be world champion when he finished 47th at a World Cup moguls event in Mont Gabriel, Canada, on January 24, 2009. Nor was he looking particularly dominant when he placed 45th at a World Cup in Deer Valley, Utah, one week later. Apparently the solution was as simple as traveling to the other side of the world. At the 2009 World Championships in Inawashiro, Japan, the 21-year-old American broke through to claim a surprise world title. The victory represented a significant step forward for Deneen, who never previously had finished better than third in a World Cup race, a feat he had accomplished four times.
Deneen was just 11 months and two days old when his father—then a co-owner and general manager of a ski resort in Washington state—placed him on skis for the first time. He began as an alpine skier but became intrigued by freestyle. "It just looked like so much fun," Deneen explains. "And I tried it, and it was even more fun than it looked." Deneen gave up another athletic endeavor—competitive horseback riding—to focus exclusively on skiing at age 15. Being home-schooled afforded Deneen the chance to ski as many as 190 days a year, and at age 17 in January 2005, he competed in his first World Cup event, finishing 48th due to a combination of nerves and equipment trouble. "I pushed out of the gate, skied three turns, and the next thing I know, my ski clicks off, I fall into the first air," Deneen recalls.
In January 2008, Deneen returned to Lake Placid for the first time since his inauspicious World Cup debut. "It was pretty nerve-wracking going there, knowing that the last time I was there, I fell flat on my face," he says. "But I came there with so much fire." Deneen's intensity translated to back-to-back third-place finishes, his first top-three finishes on the World Cup circuit. Less than a week later, Deneen's run in Mont Gabriel, Quebec, "wasn't the cleanest, but it was one of the faster runs of the day." That speed, which has become Deneen's trademark as a skier, prompted 1994 Olympic moguls champion Jean-Luc Brassard of Canada to nickname the American "The Rocket." After that season, during which Deneen placed fifth in the World Cup moguls standings, international coaches voted him 2008 FIS World Cup Rookie of the Year.
Deneen's hometown, Cle Elum, Washington, is on the eastern slopes of the Cascade Mountains. "The actual meaning of Cle Elum is swift water," Deneen explains. "We have rivers. We have fishing... Even if you're not catching anything, there's so much wildlife that hangs around." There's also a significant amount of animal life around Deneen's home, due to the fact that his mother raises quarter horses and border collies. "This year, my dad actually built a jump site at my house," Deneen says. "We have a bunch of dogs that run out there, and as I'm training I'm going down to do my jump, and I have three border collies running down after me, chasing me down the hill."
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