ASPEN — For Olympic skier Alex Ferreira, every day is filled with physical activities; of course there's the gauntlet of training exercises, but he also stacks as many other sports into each day as humanly possible (with a focus on pickleball).
Ferreira, who competes in the halfpipe, has been on his skis since he was a kid and imagines that he has accumulated tens-of-thousands of hours doing the thing he loves.
"At this point," he commented, "it feels like millions of hours! I'm sure it's somewhere close to, realistically, 20,000 to 30,000 or maybe even 40,000 [hours]. I just absolutely love it more than anything. I live, eat, [and] breathe it. I'm constantly watching it, I'm constantly following it, I just love doing it."
Since Ferreira started he's competed nearly endlessly, skiing in the X Games, Dew Tour, Olympics, Snow Rodeo and more; it's a life that requires endless training.
"I just devote all of my time and energy into training so that when the time does arise, the pressure doesn't seem so great and it is just another day of doing what I love to do."
However, this athlete makes time for other sports as well, including almost any sort of outdoor activity from cycling to running, hiking and more.
"I mean, I won't consider the day a win unless it's a tri-sport day."
Above everything else, with the exception of skiing, perhaps the king of extracurriculars for this Olympic athlete is pickleball.
"When I'm on the court, everything else just dissolves away, kind of like when I'm in the mountains."
Looking ahead, a significant question I had, is how long do you keep going forward?
"That's a great question, I will be in this as long as I love it. That's kind of vague and a gray area."
Ferreira say that the day he wakes up and no longer feels driven, that when he'll know to make a change.
"That's when you get hurt, that's when you fall out of love, that's when things start to get dangerous."
However, he says that until that day comes, somewhere down the road, he plans to continue skiing with all that he's got.
"I think what comes after skiing is definitely some business [and] entrepreneurial actions. I have a couple of good ideas that I can put into the marketplace that I think will bring value, and I'm excited to delve into that world. On top of that, I will most likely be playing pickleball, whether it's for fun, whether it's teaching people, or whether it's trying to become a professional in it, I will be on the pickleball court."
If you would like to follow along on Alex's adventures, you can find him on Instagram or learn more about his career HERE.
