keri herman If anything, Keri Herman thought she might one day make the Olympics in ice hockey. She grew up as a hockey star in a hockey-crazy family in hockey-crazy Minnesota. Skiing was something she did a little bit on spring breaks, but was nothing she took seriously. She hit her first rail when she was 21, as a senior at the University of Denver. Herman, who is now 31 and lives in Breckenridge, quickly realized it was something she could be pretty good at. “I picked up skiing so quickly because it is a lot of the same movements (as hockey),” Herman said. “You’re turning left, you’re turning right, you’re spinning to get around people. Skates are so much smaller than skis. Skis are like, ‘What? All this balance? This is easy!’” Slopestyle was just becoming a competitive sport as Herman got serious about it. No one was talking about it as a potential Olympic sport. But in 2011, the International Olympic Committee approved it for Sochi. “We never really thought it was an option,” Herman said. “X Games was the big thing. After going to the X Games it was like, ‘Hey, we did it!’ All of a sudden we have the opportunity to compete at the Olympics, and it’s really just incredible.” Herman won the World Cup slopestyle title in 2013. Now, she’s thinking about a standing on the Olympic podium. “It’s really an exciting time for all of us,” she said. — ED STONER
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