You would think that for a sport as expensive as skiing, its professional athletes would be raking in the dough like they are in similarly ritzy sports like golf or tennis, but unfortunately the sport's utter irrelevance to ninety-something percent of the US population means big sponsors aren't in any hurry to lavish pro skiers with Williams sister-level contracts. Freeskiing especially, with its nutty terrain park and big mountain talents, gets the shaft, leaving most of its "pros" living on friends' couches and surviving off of ramen.
Swedish skier Jon Olsson is one glaring exception to this rule. Ever since medaling at a big air contest in the States when he was just a teen, Jon has somehow been living the life more of a trust funded European playboy than the classic ski bum scumbag. He's racked up huge sponsors like Red Bull, Audi, and British online bookie Betsafe.com, lived in Monaco for a spell (ya know, for tax purposes), races across Europe with millionaires in expensive sports cars in the Gumball 3000, and drives to the mountain not in a ratty Subaru, but in a custom carbon-fiber Audi R8 with a roof box. When he's not busy with all that ski training, he's usually playing golf with his Swedish model girlfriend, designing his own luxury ski goggles, or just getting a really good tan along the Spanish Riviera at his new home in Marbella, Spain. Once a year he gives the rest of the pro freeskiers a taste of the good life at his own Jon Olsson Invitational by flying them into the ski town via helicopter and treating them to a week of jumping, competing, and champagne partying with uber hot Scando babes that leave them all kicking themselves for living deep in the mountains.
"Casa Camo" is his home base from which he trains for ski racing; Jon bet a friend he could make the switch from a terrain park freestyler (he's won 9 Winter X Games medals) to a Swedish National Team-worthy ski racer in time for the 2014 Winter Olympics, and seems on pace to do so. Of course, our first reaction upon seeing the urban camo was "ugly!!!," and made us think more of some diabolical headquarters from a James Bond movie than a cutting edge modern home, but maybe we just don't live well enough to get it. We do like the open floor plan, maybe wish the pool tiles weren't green, and are dying to see the view from the roofdeck. What do you think?
· A little bit of everything [Jon-Olsson.com]
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