There is no more pressure packed into a moment in sports than competing at the Olympic Games in your hometown, with your teammate and defending Olympic champion ahead of you on points. You need the jump of a lifetime, with the expectations of every single hometown fan hanging on the most important jump of your career. And he nailed it! Olympic silver for Joe Pack.

Joe Pack’s storybook Olympic run in 2002 was just part of a star-studded career as one of the best U.S. freestyle aerial skiers. Pack has stood on 16 World Cup podiums, winning three. He was a proven contender at major events, with two World Championship medals, plus his Olympic silver.

Pack’s career began as a ski jumper in New Hampshire before turning to aerials at age 12. As a ski jumper, he had soared off the 90-meter hill in Lake Placid before his family moved west to Park City, Utah. There he focused on aerials at the newly developed Utahj Olympic Park and its summer splash-pool training center.

His career as a young aerialist accelerated when he won a Junior World Championship title in 1996 at just 17. Two seasons later, misfortune struck when a knee injury kept him out of what would have been his first Olympics. A year later he took bronze at the World Championships and won his first U.S. title. He was among the best athletes in his sport, partnering with 1998 Olympic champion Eric Bergoust to provide a one-two punch for the U.S. Freestyle Ski Team.

In front of his hometown fans and family at Deer Valley in 2002, Pack positioned himself well and nailed both jumps to take home silver at the Winter Games. He retired in 2006.

Career Highlights:

1996: Won a Junior World Championship title at the age of 17
1999: Bronze at World Championships, his first U.S. title
2002: Silver at Olympic Winter Games at Deer Valley Resort