PIMPLY HYPERBOLE

Jonny Moseley's rich. He's popular. He's good looking. He's talented. He's won an Olympic Gold Medal. And he's in trouble.

Since nailing his huge-hanging heli-mute grab at the Nagano Olympics. Moseley's post-Olympic swirl has seen him navigate through a bump field of public appearances, Armani suits, dinner with Cindy Crawford, ABC'S Superstars, and a Teen Beat image. After two years of pandemonium (appearances on Oprah, Rosie, Today Show, Letterman, dating MTV vixen Serena Altschul, gaining then losing major money contracts with American Skiing Company and Sprint), the distractions and injuries are beginning to chink the armor of the once number one ranked mogul skier in the world.

"Because of the attention, It's been a lot harder to get in training days," admitted Moseley while competing in a Far West Freestyle event over the Christmas Holidays in Squaw Valley. "I now turn down most stuff. I'm training with the U.S. Team and only competing in World Cup events."

Although the Squaw Valley athlete has won two overall World Cup freestyle titles, five combined junior and professional World Cup titles, and 14 World Cups, along with the Sprint Bumps and Jumps and his own Jonny Moseley Invitational, many insiders admit there is no guarantee Moseley will make next year's US squad in order to defend his gold medal. Though he placed second in a World Cup dual mogul event this season, overall results have been mediocre. He placed third at the local Squaw Valley freestyle event and in the following weeks did not qualify at the Deer Valley and was left off the U.S. team set to compete at this winter's World Championships in Blackcomb, Canada.

"My skills aren't back yet where I want them. I'm in a building process," says Moseley. "But growing up I was taught no matter what it is, no matter how screwed up, you can somehow fix it. You just gotta roll up the sleeves and get busy. I love the feeling of winning, and I know I can win the Olympic Gold in 2002."

Ski Tahoe: Let's forget all this ski stuff for a second and get to a more important question. You once said that aerial competition always gave you a twinge of fear. How scary was it disrobing in front of Cindy Crawford when the two of you modeled for Freeskier Magazine?

JM: I wouldn't say I had a problem taking my clothes off in front of her, although... oh man, (laughing as at himself) ...never mind, we shouldn't say too much.... She was cool. The night before she cooked dinner for me at her house. Her mother came over along with some friends. It was so regular. No hype. No attitude. She treated me right. We became friends. The next day she shows up and worked all day like this photo shoot was for real, like for Vogue, and not just some ski magazine. Very professional, and it was alright with the clothes off. She's much better looking up close, and she likes skiing. She has a cousin who's a mogul skier, Lauren Crawford, out in Steamboat. The reason she took time out to model was she knew the guy who started the magazine.

Ski Tahoe: You're a pop star. Since Nagano your life has been like living in a goldfish bowl. In one week alone your mug was spotted in the SF Chronicle's gossip column with you at the opera with some beautiful heiress, then flying a jet with the Blue Angels, then in a ski magazine announcing some sponsorship agreement. I mean the barber in Peru, Indiana knows who you are. Does it ever get old, all this notoriety, even like right now talking to one more journalist?

JM: At first I didn't care. I wanted to do everything. Everything that came up I wanted to do. Go to the opera with some wonderful woman? What, are you weird? Sure! The only request I think I turned down was some guy in San Francisco who wanted me to be chairman of a gay parade. Now that I've been saturated by the whole media thing, however, I'm starting to prize my privacy. Now I pick and choose and do things that I only really want to do, and to tell you the truth I'm not doing much. Training and competing is what's on my mind.

Ski Tahoe: How about the girls?

JM: (laughing, almost shyly) Yeh, sure. Last night I go to this party at Andy Hetzel's house in Squaw. He's a pretty hot snowboarder, and he and his girlfriend were having a three year anniversary party of owning their house. All the boys were there, all the hot riders and skiers; Kreitler, Holmes, Morgan. So cool, right? After awhile I look around the room and I count like 45 dudes and one, one I'm telling ya, one girl. I guess people always take it for granted, especially when all the photo shoots have us surrounded by women, but this is Tahoe, man. They better build these resort villages quick to get something going.

Ski Tahoe: You strike me as a genuine person, a pretty caring guy who doesn't just go through the motions with friends, let alone strangers. Was there anything growing up that your parents harped to you about?

JM: I have a supertight family. My brothers are my best friends. Our family always did things together. My mom, Barbara, and father, Tom, taught us to respect the things we have. My dad was always into types of entertainment that are not bought. He's also a very hands on guy. He fixes everything himself. I don't think we ever owned a brand new car, and though I'm not very good, I grew up fixing things. I still like working on my '64 Pontiac Bonneville.

Ski Tahoe: Speed skier Steve McKinney once told me that you need to be good enough to be cocky, but cocky enough to be good. Has it been tough these last few years to blow your own horn, but still stay pure to the mountains, to skiing?

JM: That's been the hardest part. This weird thing happens. You become known only as Jonny Moseley, not as a skier. The Gold Medal takes you out of who you are and what you do, and it's easy to lose touch. I mean people will ask you about stuff that has nothing to do with skiing, but about politics and Clinton, and they'll actually listen to you like you're all of a sudden an expert, or your unqualified opinion means something. I consciously make an effort to balance these things out, and sometimes it comes in a form of turning down an opportunity or not making an appearance which I think aren't true to the sport.

Ski Tahoe: You no longer compete in all these X-Game, Bumps and Jumps type events.

JM: After the Olympic year I wanted to promote skiing and not worry about USSA and World Cup politics. I wanted to set myself up in a way that I could handle training for the next few years before the Salt Lake 2002 Olympics. I knew I couldn't take another World Cup tour in Europe. Events such as Bump and Jumps and X-Games were better pro events than what the FIS World Cup was offering. And I wanted to be in front of America. I see all these awesome athletes in the States and wonder why so many of them don't ski. I wanted to get more people involved.

Ski Tahoe: What did your teammates and coaches think about your decision to remain home?

JM: It wasn't a fight against the US Ski Team. In fact I was representing concerns of my teammates. At a FIS conference in Sweden two summers ago we demanded to compete in events outside World Cup. Freestyle is a different breed. I mean, freestyle grew out of a reaction, an alternative, a rebuttal to racing. That's the root of it. Alpine racing has always been an FIS thing, not freestyle. I will admit that without the FIS freestyle I would not have been in the Olympics and for that I say thank God for them.I was just concerned about the best forum to compete in. Now it's back to World Cup events so I can return to the Olympics.

Ski Tahoe: Are you still coachable?

JM: I've always thought one of my strengths was how to learn, make things better, trust a coach, take advice without question. Trust is a big thing, to allow someone to analyze you. I hope I'm still coachable because I have one of the best coaches; Cooper Schell. The team doesn't like me having a personal coach, but that's how it is. Having shoulder surgery kind of blew off my summer training. I broke a rotator cuff doing an inverted aerial and it set me back six months. Now I'm fine and skiing a lot. I'm training as much as I can, and I'm out there to win.

Ski Tahoe: What's the wildest thing you've ever done on skis?

JM: I was 10 years old and went straight down, tucked it halfway down Squaw Valley's Olympic Lady, down the gully literally straight. I beatered, split my head open. All for a $2 dare.

Ski Tahoe: By this stage of your fame you could write your own ticket. I mean move to a villa in Portugal with Countess Look-At-Me, go Hollywood, hang with Glen Frey and the Eagles in Aspen, date Morgan Fairchild, yet you remain in Squaw Valley. Are you crazy? It's hard to get laid around here..

JM: Oh, yeah, I know SquallyWood. It can be pretty bad. Squaw has a lot of faults, a lot of problems, but it's my home. I like coming back here. Raymond deVre is here and he's pretty important in my life. There are so many great skiers here. No one hassles you I have a lot of good friends. People leave you alone and I love skiing that mountain.

Ski Tahoe: You changed from K2 to Head skis last year.

JM.:It's really nice being on the Head team. They put together a great package. They're American. They're big, but not huge, and they are very in touch with their athletes. They're also not caught up in just alpine racing as to treat everyone else like a second class citizen. They listen to what I have to say and allow me to direct input. I love the twin tip Madtrix ski. I'm on Head boots, too. Head's been great.

Ski Tahoe: Back to more fun stuff, what do you talk about at commercial break on all these talk shows, and just how cool are these talk show hosts?

JM: The talk show hosts are all a bit different. I never saw Rosie during the break. She was doing make-up. Others are actually ski fanatics and ask for advice. Letterman was great. He acted genuinely concerned in what I was doing next. Tom Snyder was pretty cool. He's from the Bay area and it was fun talking to him about Marin. It's funny, but he swears every other word, just like me., yet zips it when he's on camera.

Ski Tahoe: Is there a moral to all this stuff that has happened to you the last few years??

JM: The moral or message I try to get across to folks, especially kids, is to work hard, to derive your confidence from your skills. You have to make your own luck so make things happen for you. The only way to do it is to do your homework. Don't be put in an awkward position because you're not prepared. It's made my ski life simple and helped me with everything.

Ski Tahoe: You have your work cut out for. There are no guarantees getting back to the Olympics.

JM: I feel like I'm skiing well. I'm not at the top, but that is better for me right now. No one's gunning for me and it gives me a chance to work my way back up. I'm still not there yet with my skiing where I want to be, but there's no doubt I'll be competing at the Olympics in 2002.