Jonathan William Moseley (born August 27, 1975) is an American freestyle skier and television presenter. He is the first person born in

Puerto Rico Puerto Rico (; abbreviated PR; tnq, Boriken, ''Borinquen''), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico ( es, link=yes, Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, lit=Free Associated State of Puerto Rico), is a Caribbean island and Unincorporated ...

to become a member of the

U.S. Ski Team The U.S. Ski Team, operating under the auspices of U.S. Ski & Snowboard, develops and supports men's and women's athletes in the sports of alpine skiing, freestyle skiing, cross-country, ski jumping, and Nordic combined. Since 1974 the team and ...

. He is also known for hosting three seasons of MTV's '' The Challenge'', which was formerly known as ''Real World/Road Rules Challenge''. He has also hosted four reunion specials for '' Battle of the Sexes'', the sequel of '' Battle of the Seasons'', '' Rivals II'' and '' Free Agents''.

Early years

Moseley (birth name: Jonathan William Moseley) was born in

San Juan, Puerto Rico San Juan (, , ; Spanish for "Saint John") is the capital city and most populous municipality in the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, an unincorporated territory of the United States. As of the 2020 census, it is the 57th-largest city under the jur ...

. In 1978, he saw snow for the first time when his family went on a trip to

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

. Eventually, his family moved to

Tiburon, California Tiburon (; es, Tiburón, ) is an incorporated town in Marin County, California. It is located on the Tiburon Peninsula, which reaches south into the San Francisco Bay. It shares a ZIP code with the smaller incorporated city of Belvedere (forme ...

, a suburb north of

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

where he attended

The Branson School The Branson School (also known as Branson, Branson School, or KBS) is a co-educational college-preparatory high school for students in grades 9–12. The school has 320 students, and is located in Ross, California, north of San Francisco. Histo ...

in Ross, California. His family would go to the

Sierra Nevada The Sierra Nevada () is a mountain range in the Western United States, between the Central Valley of California and the Great Basin. The vast majority of the range lies in the state of California, although the Carson Range spur lies primarily ...

every weekend. This, and the fact that he was a better skier than his brothers, inspired the then nine-year-old Moseley to take skiing lessons. In 1992, he joined the Squaw Valley Freestyle Ski Team and soon won his first Junior National title in Freestyle Skiing; he graduated from high school in 1993 and that same year was selected for the U.S. Ski Team.

United States Ski Team

Moseley tried but did not qualify for the

1994 Winter Olympics The 1994 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XVII Olympic Winter Games ( no, De 17. olympiske vinterleker; nn, Dei 17. olympiske vinterleikane) and commonly known as Lillehammer '94, was an international winter multi-sport event held fro ...

held at

Lillehammer Lillehammer () is a municipality in Innlandet county, Norway. It is located in the traditional district of Gudbrandsdal. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Lillehammer. Some of the more notable villages in the municip ...

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 t ...

and became determined to qualify for the 1998 Olympics. In 1995, he enrolled at

UC Davis The University of California, Davis (UC Davis, UCD, or Davis) is a public land-grant research university near Davis, California. Named a Public Ivy, it is the northernmost of the ten campuses of the University of California system. The institut ...

, but his education was interrupted by his intense training. In 1998, Moseley participated in and won the first two World Cup events of that year, leading to his participation in the

1998 Winter Olympics The 1998 Winter Olympics, officially known as the and commonly known as Nagano 1998 ( ja, 長野1998), was a winter multi-sport event held from 7 to 22 February 1998, mainly in Nagano, Japan, with some events taking place in the ...

held in

Nagano Nagano may refer to: Places * Nagano Prefecture, a prefecture in Japan ** Nagano (city), the capital city of the same prefecture *** Nagano 1998, the 1998 Winter Olympics *** Nagano Olympic Stadium, a baseball stadium in Nagano *** Nagano Universi ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

, where he won a gold medal. Later that year he secured the 1998 World Cup Mogul Skiing title with nine wins that season. He also won the U.S. National title. In 1999, Moseley challenged the International Skiing federation to change its policy to allow its athletes to participate in professional events, such as

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%). The ...

X Games The X Games are an annual extreme sports event organized, produced and broadcast by ESPN. Coverage is also shown on ESPN's sister network, ABC. The inaugural X Games were held during the summer of 1995 in Providence and Newport, Rhode Island, ...

where he earned a silver medal in the Big Air event. Moseley was the first skier to medal in both the X-Games (silver) and the Olympics (Gold). In 2000, Moseley won the U.S. Freeskiing Open and in 2001 regained a spot in the U.S. Ski Team at the World Cup qualifications held at Sunday River,

Maine Maine () is a state in the New England and Northeastern regions of the United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec to the northeast and north ...

. In 2002, Moseley competed but came in fourth place in the Olympic Games. In 2002, Moseley gave the commencement convocation address at UC Berkeley. The choice by the senior class committee was controversial at the time because Moseley had dropped out of college.

Honors and recognitions

Among the honors and recognitions which Moseley has received is a parade in his honor in which San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown declared a "Jonny Moseley Day" and handed him the "key" to the city. He was named "Sportsman of the Year" (1998) by the

U.S. Olympic Committee The United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee (USOPC) is the National Olympic Committee and the National Paralympic Committee for the United States. It was founded in 1895 as the United States Olympic Committee, and is headquartered in Col ...

and has been featured on the covers of ''Freeskier'' and ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first kno ...

'' magazines. He was also chosen to be the traditional post-Olympics athlete host of ''

Saturday Night Live ''Saturday Night Live'' (often abbreviated to ''SNL'') is an American late-night live television sketch comedy and variety show created by Lorne Michaels and developed by Dick Ebersol that airs on NBC and Peacock. Michaels currently serves a ...

'' in 2002, hosting the March 2, 2002, episode of the show with musical guest Outkast. On the show, he performed a sketch called "Jonny's Journey," in which he went "around the world on a never-ending Dinner Roll" via a

green screen Chroma key compositing, or chroma keying, is a visual-effects and post-production technique for compositing (layering) two images or video streams together based on colour hues ( chroma range). The technique has been used in many fields to r ...

. Moseley is largely credited with having brought the

Iron Cross The Iron Cross (german: link=no, Eisernes Kreuz, , abbreviated EK) was a military decoration in the Kingdom of Prussia, and later in the German Empire (1871–1918) and Nazi Germany (1933–1945). King Frederick William III of Prussia est ...

trick into the limelight, where the athlete crosses their skis midair during a jump. This trick was a radical departure from the old school air tricks, which include Daffies, Backscratchers and Moonwalks (see

Glen Plake Glen Plake (born September 9, 1964) is a US National Ski Hall of Fame skier. He grew up in Lake Tahoe, skiing Heavenly Valley. He is known for his appearances in ski films such as Greg Stump's ''The Blizzard of Aahhhs''. Plake has been named ...

Personal life

Moseley married Malia Rich, a business manager, on March 25, 2006, in

Telluride, Colorado Telluride is the county seat and most populous town of San Miguel County in the southwestern portion of the U.S. state of Colorado. The town is a former silver mining camp on the San Miguel River in the western San Juan Mountains. The first ...

. Moseley met Rich in high school; the couple started dating in 2001 and got engaged on April 20, 2003. On September 4, 2007, Rich gave birth to the couple's first child, named Jonathan "Jack" William Moseley Jr. in

Later years

Moseley launched a

web site A website (also written as a web site) is a collection of web pages and related content that is identified by a common domain name and published on at least one web server. Examples of notable websites are Google, Facebook, Amazon, and Wikipe ...

that sells products with his logo on them and has appeared on advertisements for

McDonald's McDonald's Corporation is an American Multinational corporation, multinational fast food chain store, chain, founded in 1940 as a restaurant operated by Richard and Maurice McDonald, in San Bernardino, California, United States. They rechri ...

and Sprint. He graduated from the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

on May 17, 2007 with a

B.A. Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

American Studies American studies or American civilization is an interdisciplinary field of scholarship that examines American literature, history, society, and culture. It traditionally incorporates literary criticism, historiography and critical theory. Sch ...

focusing on Consumer and Popular Culture. In December 2001, 3DO released ''

Jonny Moseley Mad Trix ''Jonny Moseley Mad Trix'' is a skiing video game published and developed by The 3DO Company. The game is based on the skier of the same name. Soundtrack The soundtrack was distributed by Palm Pictures. Reception ''Jonny Moseley Mad Trix'' rec ...

'' a level-based extreme skiing game named after the skier. Moseley, who currently lives in California, was the host of three seasons of the

MTV MTV (Originally an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable channel that launched on August 1, 1981. Based in New York City, it serves as the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group, part of Paramount Media Networks, a di ...

reality show ''Real World/Road Rules Challenge'' (now called '' The Challenge''). He is part of the celebrity panel of judges (along with

Steve Garvey Steven Patrick Garvey (born December 22, 1948) is an American former professional baseball player. He played in Major League Baseball as a first baseman for the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres from 1969 to 1987. Garvey was the National ...

and

Oksana Baiul , altname= Oksana Baiul-Farina , birth_date= , birth_place=Dnipro, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union , residence= , height= , formercoach= Galina Zmievskaya Valentyn Nikolayev Stanislav Koritek , formerchoreographer= Sarah Kawahara , formertrain ...

) on the

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...

show "

Master of Champions ''Master of Champions'' is a show which began airing June 22, 2006 on American Broadcasting Company, ABC. The show format was based on a Nippon Television (NTV) original series entitled ''World Records''. The show was reformatted and produced in t ...

". After the 2002 Olympics Moseley hosted Saturday Night Live. Moseley developed an aerial ski move called "The Dinner Roll" and spoke about it during a 2002 speech at UC Berkeley: In 2007, ''Warren Miller's Playground'' was released with Moseley as the narrator. He was also in the movie as he has been in a few Warren Miller ski movies in the past. Moseley has narrated every film since. He has gone on to narrate a number of other Warren Miller movies. Moseley also used to host a weekly radio program on Sirius/XM's channel 41. The show was called "The Moseley Method". Moseley was the color analyst for NBC at the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver for the moguls, aerials and ski cross events. In 2010 he was cast on the ABC show

Skating with the Stars ''Skating with the Stars'' is an American reality competition series that aired on ABC from November 22 to December 21, 2010. A spin-off of '' Dancing with the Stars'' hosted by British television personality Vernon Kay, it featured celebrities ...

where he was paired with retired Pairs skater

Brooke Castile Brooke Castile (born May 31, 1986) is an American former competitive pair skater. With Benjamin Okolski, she is the 2008 Four Continents bronze medalist, 2007 Nebelhorn Trophy champion, and 2007 U.S. national champion. Personal life Castile ...

. Mosley finished in third place as second runner-up. He is currently the host of the latest viral marketing campaign by Ford Motor Company, Focus Rally America. In 2011 Moseley became a co-host of "

American Ninja Warrior American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, p ...

" on G4. In 2012 the show moved to

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an Television in the United States, American English-language Commercial broadcasting, commercial television network, broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Enterta ...

and he continued his hosting role. In 2013, Moseley appeared on ''

Undercover Boss ''Undercover Boss'' is a reality television series franchise created by Stephen Lambert and produced in many countries. It originated in 2009 on the British Channel 4. The show’s format features the experiences of senior executives working u ...

'', playing the host of the fictitious reality show which Squaw Valley/

Alpine Meadows Alpine tundra is a type of natural region or biome that does not contain trees because it is at high elevation, with an associated harsh climate. As the latitude of a location approaches the poles, the threshold elevation for alpine tundra gets ...

CEO

Andy Wirth Andrew "Andy" Wirth (born 25 July 1963) is an American businessman and philanthropist who works in the mountain resort and hotel industry. He was most recently the president and CEO of Squaw Valley Ski Holdings, the parent company of Palisades ...

is supposedly a contestant on.

References

External links

Personal web site

Berkeley 2004 press release
{{DEFAULTSORT:Moseley, Jonny Sportspeople from San Juan, Puerto Rico Puerto Rican male freestyle skiers University of California, Berkeley alumni Olympic gold medalists for the United States in freestyle skiing Olympic freestyle skiers of the United States American male freestyle skiers American freeskiers Freestyle skiers at the 1998 Winter Olympics Freestyle skiers at the 2002 Winter Olympics 1975 births Living people Medalists at the 1998 Winter Olympics Sportspeople from California People from Tiburon, California People from Olympic Valley, California