Grete Eliassen (born September 21, 1986 in

Lutsen, Minnesota Lutsen ( ) is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Lutsen Township, Cook County, Minnesota, United States. As of the 2020 census, its population was 220. Lutsen is located within the Superior National Forest, on th ...

) is an American-Norwegian

freestyle skier Freestyle skiing is a skiing discipline comprising aerials, moguls, cross, half-pipe, slopestyle and big air as part of the Winter Olympics. It can consist of a skier performing aerial flips and spins and can include skiers sliding rails and ...

. She won a bronze medal in ''Slopestyle'' at the 2011

Winter X Games XV Winter X Games XV (styled as Winter X Games Fifteen in the official logo) were held from January 26 to January 30, 2011, in Aspen, Colorado. They are the 10th consecutive Winter X Games to be held in Aspen. The events were broadcast on ESPN. Sport ...

Aspen Aspen is a common name for certain tree species; some, but not all, are classified by botanists in the section ''Populus'', of the '' Populus'' genus. Species These species are called aspens: *'' Populus adenopoda'' – Chinese aspen (Chin ...

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the wes ...

, behind

Kaya Turski Kaya Turski (born May 3, 1988) is a Canadian freestyle skier. She is an eight-time Winter X Games champion in Women's Ski slope style. At the 2010 Winter X Games XIV held in Aspen, she won her gold medal with the highest ever slopestyle score ...

and Keri Herman. She has won 6 medals at the Winter X Games in slopestyle and halfpipe events including back to back gold medals in 2005 and 2006. Eliassen serves as the 16th president of the

Women's Sports Foundation The Women's Sports Foundation (WSF) is a 501(c)(3) educational nonprofit charity focused on female involvement in sports. Founded in 1974 by tennis player Billie Jean King and initially supported by Olympic athletes Donna de Varona and Suzy Chaffe ...

, effective January 2017.

Early life

Eliassen was born in

to a Norwegian father and American mother. She started skiing at the young age of two. She grew up near some of the finest mountains in North America. She moved to

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the ...

for a year when she was five. When she returned to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

, she started playing several different sports: hockey, soccer, basketball, tennis, water-skiing, baseball, cross country skiing, and alpine skiing. When she was 13, Eliassen moved to Lillehammer, Norway. She decided to continue her skiing career there.

Career

A year after Eliassen moved back to Norway, she was named the Norwegian SL National Champion. Soon thereafter, she was selected to join the Norwegian Ski Team. She was on the team for two seasons. At the age of sixteen, Eliassen won the

Super-G Super giant slalom, or super-G, is a racing discipline of alpine skiing. Along with the faster downhill, it is regarded as a "speed" event, in contrast to the technical events giant slalom and slalom. It debuted as an official World Cup event d ...

at the Junior World Championship in France and placed third in slalom skiing at the European Junior Olympics in

Slovenia Slovenia ( ; sl, Slovenija ), officially the Republic of Slovenia (Slovene: , abbr.: ''RS''), is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the southeast, an ...

. Eliassen realized that racing was not the type of skiing that satisfied her and soon after she fell in love with

freeskiing Freeskiing, or new school skiing, is a specific type of alpine skiing, which involves tricks, jumps, and terrain park features, such as rails, boxes, jibs, or other obstacles. This form of skiing resulted from the growth of snowboarding combi ...

. During her first year of competing in freeskiing, she took first place in the Rip Curl Free Ski and the US Open. Since she made her debut, she has won the US Open four times as well as wins at Red Bull Cold Rush and the Dew Tour. She captures back to back gold medals at the

Winter X Games Winter is the coldest season of the year in polar and temperate climates. It occurs after autumn and before spring. The tilt of Earth's axis causes seasons; winter occurs when a hemisphere is oriented away from the Sun. Different cultur ...

. In addition, she also won two silver and two bronze medals at the Winter X Games. She is the only female skier to medal in both the first Halfpipe and Slopestyle X Games events. In 2007, Eliassen won all the open events, US Open, European Open, and Nippon Open. She was named "Women Skier of the Decade" by Fri Flyt magazine. From fall 2008 until spring 2010, Eliassen co-produced and was featured in the ski film "Say My Name" with one of her sponsors, Red Bull. She won

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). Th ...

Best Performance in a Leading Role and IF3 Montreal Best Female Performance for her role in the film. In 2010, Eliassen broke the Hip Jump World Record. She reached speeds of 60 miles per hour downhill, hit the custom 30 foot hip feature, and soared more than 31 feet in the air. No woman has even come close to breaking her records.

Career Highlights

* 2013 FIS World Championship,

Slopestyle Slopestyle is a winter sport in which athletes ski or snowboard down a course including a variety of obstacles including rails, jumps and other terrain park features. Points are scored for amplitude, originality and quality of tricks. The disc ...

-3rd place * 2011 Red Bull Cold Rush- 1st place * 2011 Winter X Games, Slopestyle-3rd place * 2010 Set Women's Hip Jump World Record * 2010 Winter X Games, Slopestyle- 3rd place * 2009 Winter X Games, Slopestyle- 2nd place * 2007 US Freeskiing Open,

Halfpipe A half-pipe is a structure used in gravity extreme sports such as snowboarding, skateboarding, skiing, freestyle BMX, Inline skating, skating, and scooter riding. Overview The structure resembles a cross-section of a swimming pool, essentially t ...

- 1st place * 2007 Winter X Games, Halfpipe- 2nd place * 2006 Winter X Games, Halfpipe- 1st place * 2006 US Open, Halfpipe-1st place * 2005 FIS World Championships,

-3rd place * 2005 Winter X Games, Halfpipe-1st place * 2005 US Open, Halfpipe- 1st place * 2005 World FIS World Championships,

-3rd place * 2004 US Open, Halfpipe-1st place * 2003 FIS Junior World Championships Super G-1st place * 2003 European Junior Olympics, Slalom-3rd place

Personal life

Eliassen now resides in

Salt Lake City, Utah Salt Lake City (often shortened to Salt Lake and abbreviated as SLC) is the Capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Utah, most populous city of Utah, United States. It is the county seat, seat of Salt Lake County, Utah, Sal ...

with her husband. She graduated from the

University of Utah The University of Utah (U of U, UofU, or simply The U) is a public research university in Salt Lake City, Utah. It is the flagship institution of the Utah System of Higher Education. The university was established in 1850 as the University of De ...

in May 2013 with a business marketing degree. She enjoys

waterskiing Water skiing (also waterskiing or water-skiing) is a surface water sport in which an individual is pulled behind a boat or a cable ski installation over a body of water, skimming the surface on two skis or one ski. The sport requires suffici ...

wakeboarding Wakeboarding is a water sport in which the rider, standing on a wakeboard (a board with foot bindings), is towed behind a motorboat across its wake and especially up off the crest in order to perform aerial maneuvers. A hallmark of wakeboardin ...

, golf, tennis, rock-climbing, skateboarding and biking when not skiing.Grete Eliassen on winning ESPN's Best Female in Action Sports poll - X Games
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Activism

Eliassen is also very involved within the community of female athletes. She is very passionate about giving young girls the same opportunities as boys when it comes to sport

Recently Eliassen has been elected to serve as the president of the

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Eliassen, Grete 1986 births Living people American female freestyle skiers Norwegian female freestyle skiers Sportspeople from Rochester, Minnesota X Games athletes Sportspeople from Lillehammer American people of Norwegian descent Norwegian people of American descent University of Utah alumni