Ryan's Professional Biography

If you want some advice on how to be like Ryan St. Onge, it's simple – start early. Ryan first tried out a pair of skis at age two. He was so small and his boots were so big that he could sit down on the backs of his boots and have a rest while cruising down the hill. All that saved up energy was put to use ripping Outer Limits in Killington, Vermont, the steepest, scariest, mogul run in New England when he was just 5 years old. It wasn't until much later that Ryan began to realize that moguls are far easier to ski when they are so big that you can tuck down the back side and have to work to skate up the front to get to the next one.

Ryan did his first quadruple twisting triple back flip at age 5. And it didn't matter one bit that it wasn't planned. Tumbling through space was a job Ryan was born to do, it seemed, and he laughed hysterically the whole way. Ryan's parents Cary and Sara, always ready for the next adventure, moved Ryan and his older skier brother Chad to Winter Park when Ryan was 8. And if fate itself had concocted the weather that winter, it couldn't have been any more influential. It snowed three feet every week for the entire season. “I was hooked on skiing, and my parents knew that my brother and I would live to ski,” Ryan says.

Ryan trained at the Winter Park Competition Center for the next eight years, and joined the U.S. Ski Team when he was 14. In the selection event for the team, Ryan competed against people twice his age doing tricks that were far harder than his own. “I scored perfect on two out of four jumps,” Ryan says. “I think that got the attention of the coaching staff.”

Although Ryan was always passionate about skiing, it wasn't until he went to the World Mogul Camp in Blackcomb, British Columbia, when he was 15 that he knew he really wanted to seriously compete in aerials. At the camp to ski moguls, Ryan met international aerial skiing superstar Eric Bergoust (1998 Olympic Champion) who began coaching Ryan at the water ramps. Bergoust talked at great length about the art of aerials, emphasizing the importance of efficiency combined with aesthetics. Ryan never looked back.

After nearly two decades of competitive skiing, Ryan says it has never for one minute felt like “work.” He enjoys constantly traveling the world and expressing what he calls sincerity in every jump. “To jump is not just to complete flips and twists for myself or for the judges,” he says. “For me, jumping is the opportunity to show myself who I want to be. I work allowing myself plenty of time, working with nothing on my mind, and without expecting anything. I just jump.”

And his passion for expression and sincerity bleeds over into the rest of his life. Always remaining grounded, even while flying through the air, Ryan prefers to approach each day simply and purposefully. Like the hero John Galt in his favorite novel, Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged , Ryan embraces the philosophy that he has both failed and succeeded for the same reasons at various times. “It is so much easier to create the world as you choose and live in it, than to live in the world how it is,” he says.