Like many skiers who watched this run live; it changed my life. A 360 mute grab in the Olympics? And it was appreciated by the judges and the world? I could feel the industry and myself changing.
Johnny brought badly needed style to the Olympics. If Olympic judges were down with ski grabs, then so was the entire world.
By 1998, the freeride/freestyle scene was already continually coming up with new tricks and new grabs, but after 1998 there was an explosion. Johnny was a big part of that explosion as it was he who brought it to the masses.
Since that fateful 360 mute grab in 1998, the Olympics have opened up to freestyle events such as snowboard halfpipe, snowboard slopestyle, ski halfpipe, and ski slopestyle.
The Olympics are learning how to appeal to wider, younger audience. I still give Johnny a ton of credit for putting that grab in there in 1998 and showing the world what style was all about.
He’s not the first athlete to take his fame and throw his skiing away. He needed to do what cyclists call confirmation, keep up the work and do it again. otherwise it’s a flash in the pan, luck, chance, basically bullshit. Not a major talent, IMO.
haha to think now if you call squaw customer service all you hear on the on hold is him promoting the squaw creek gold course wow, how things changed
Life changing moment for me…
Too bad Mosley didn’t do anything other than MTV shows after that, aside from being a full time conceded dick.
I remember. Screamed my head off.