Bobby Brown: living the life

This 19-year-old Breckenridge Freeride Team member and two-time Winter X-Games gold medalist seems too good to be true. He is kind, considerate and humble, constantly crediting his family for his success (his parents served as his agent until recently, and he still refers to his father as his “mental coach”).

Saddled with a nickname that embarrasses him to no end (he’s known as “The Teen Heartthrob,” a sort of Justin Bieber on snow), Brown has unfortunate news for his growing legion of female admirers: He doesn’t have time for that sort of commitment.

“Skiing is my girlfriend for now,” he laughs, though he’d make an exception for Taylor Swift. “I would definitely fit her into my hectic life,” Brown admits.

After introducing himself to the world in December 2008 with a big Slopestyle win at the Winter Dew Tour stop in Breckenridge, Brown ascended to rarified air at the 2010 Winter X Games, becoming the first skier to collect two golds at the same event. More spectacularly, he posted a perfect 100 score in crushing the Big Air field. 

“It was insane, one of the greatest feelings I have ever had. All my friends and family were there, which made it that much more amazing. I pulled a backflip for my final jump. So sweet,” recalls Brown.

A Denver native, Brown spends winters in Breckenridge and an inordinate amount of time in the Freeway Terrain Park. “Breck is the one of the best winter getalways in the world. It has an awesome terrain park, the biggest and best jumps and a perfect halfpipe,” he says. “It’s the Mecca for all winter-action-sports athletes.”

Brown traveled the globe this past summer, training and competing in Oregon, British Columbia, New Zealand and Australia. He’s made his mark in Slopestyle and Big Air, and now he’s adding halfpipe to the regimen with hopes of competing in the 2014 Winter Olympics (if the discipline is added to the Games, as expected).

“I’ve been training pipe hard last summer, getting ready for all the pipe contests for this year and beyond.”

For now he’s looking forward to training over the course of the summer and ramping up for competitions like the Dew Tour next season.

“I love the stop at Breck because the course is so big. Everyone can lay down insane runs, because you know the park is going to be perfectly set up, built and shaped.”

— Andy Bigford

Check out a full video series on Bobby Brown and his life as a pro athlete at BeingBobby.com.