A Morning With Simon Dumont
Jan 28 2007 / Aspen, CO Lat34 Hung out With Skiing Phenom Simon Dumont Saturday Morning and Here's What HappenedSimon Dumont won the silver medal in men’s superpipe last night… according to 58% of people in a Freeskier magazine poll believe he was robbed of the gold. Not that he lets it get to him. “All I can do is ski my best, the rest is in the judges hands. Nice to see the people with me though.” He tells me when I ask him about the poll and the event.
|
||||||||||
Saturday morning I headed over to the Target house to meet up with Dumont and see how he was recovering after the big night last night. Tomorrow he’s in the ski slopestyle, so this was just one event in a long weekend and really just one weekend in a long season of contests. Since the New Year he has already won the first stop of the Ski Tour ($25,000) and second place in the U.S. Open of freeskiing last weekend.
When I asked him what he’s liked about the X Games so far he laughed. “I wish that I had time to watch the other events.” While the X Games is a non-stop party for the town of Aspen, for Dumont it’s work. But not a bad job he’ll happily admit.
For the moment he is relaxed and laughing with his buddies over breakfast, in the palatial spread that is the Aspen Target House. He’s just rolling out of bed at noon after a long night out on the town with friends. It was fun, but also all part of the job for this X Games athlete. Being Red Bull, Oakley and Target sponsored means he’s high profile and being out after his events is an important part of it all too.
Right now he’s talking about what went down at all the parties last night. Sounds like it was one hell of a good time and a metaphor of life for one of skiings brightest stars. Simon Dumont’s 2007has started off with a bang from the inaugural Honda Ski Tour in Sun Valley to the X Games. He would have liked to have won last night’s superpipe, but with three more Ski Tour events coming up and a solid performance already under his belt here and the slopestyle event on Sunday he is indeed sitting pretty. He certainly is enjoying the ride, laughing all the way.
While being a ski superstar is certainly better than most jobs, after following him around for just a morning I was already exhausted. Photo shoots, interviews, stopping constantly to sign autographs and chat with well wishers (all of whom claimed he was robbed by the judges last night) and being constantly informed of just how many obligations he has to fulfill today by his agent… and that was before he even put his skis on. Stay tuned as this kid has just gotten started.
-Cody Doucette
