Travis Mayer
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Olympic medal record | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Men’s Freestyle Skiing | |||
| Silver | Salt Lake City 2002 | Moguls | |
Travis Mayer (born February 22, 1982 in Buffalo, New York) is an olympic-level Freesyle Skier. He won the silver metal in the moguls competition at the 2002 Winter Olympics and also competed in the 2006 Winter Olympics. Travis grew up skiing in Western New York at Holiday Valley and across the Northeast as a member of the Holiday Valley Freestyle Team. After completing junior high school in Orchard Park, as a freshman in high school he went to Killington Mountain School in Vermont for five months to concentrate on his skiing. Mayer moved to Steamboat Springs, CO to attend the Lowell Whiteman School. In the fall of his junior year, at 16, Mayer was named a member of the US Ski Team. Mayer continued to pursue skiing at an elite level, but by 2000 began to want to take a break from skiing and explore other life avenues, so he enrolled at Cornell University and spent a semester studying there (he continues to pursue his degree through summer classes and correspondence courses). In January 2001, Mayer returned to full-time skiing and his development further accelecerated. He made the Olympic team, and took silver at the Salt Lake City Games in 2002. Subsequently, he won his first World Cup event, in 2005 at Lake Placid.
In June 2005, Mayer was involved in a two-car accident in Wales, New York, while driving home to visit his family. The accident resulted in the death of the occupant of the other vehicle, a mother of two. Police concluded Mayer was not using drugs or alcohol, and he was not charged with a crime. He was given a citation for failing to yield at a stop sign.
In January 2006, Mayer was named to the U.S. Olympic team for Tignes.
