Olympic Medalist Alex Hall Talks Skiing, Surfing, and Spaghetti (EXCLUSIVE)

Freestyle skier Alex Hall has returned back from the Milano Cortina Winter Olympic games with another medal for Team USA, securing the silver in the slopestyle skiing finals. We had an exclusive opportunity to talk with Hall about his experience at the games, the role that skiing has played throughout his life, and returning home to his Italian roots.

Hall, 27, admitted that he felt certain expectations returning to the Olympics after winning the gold medal in Beijing back in 2022, but confessed that he "never really felt pressure to defend the gold" despite the media's focus on it.

Hall also discussed his unconventional path to becoming a professional skier, admitting that he never had a coach until he made the U.S. national team: "I never got told to do it unless I wanted to do it, it was always such a pure thing."

Hall is partnering with Rao's Homemade following his success at the Olympics, celebrating the "simple" and "traditional" Italian cuisine that he remembers from his childhood. Read below for our full exclusive interview with the Olympic medalist.

Men's Journal: First of all, congratulations on bringing home the silver for Team USA. How are you feeling?

Alex Hall: I'm excited, yeah. It felt good after all the leadup to still be able to walk away with a medal. You never know what's gonna happen, so it was nice to get one.

MJ: I'm sure you were busy practicing for most of [the games], but did you get a chance to watch any of the other events? Do you have time for other sports?

AH: Yeah, definitely. I got to watch some of the snowboard events—I was up at one of the villages that had all the freestyle stuff, so I got to watch some of the snowboarding, some of the moguls. And then near the end of the Olympics I had to go down to Milan for some stuff, and I got to watch the women's gold medal hockey game, which was awesome.

MJ: You competed in slopestyle and big air this year, with a few days in-between. How did you split your time between them?

AH: So we had slopestyle first and, between all the practice days and the qualifiers and another practice day for finals, it took about a week to do slopestyle. Then we actually went straight into practice for the big air—even though there's some days between the events, there's a bunch of practice days, so I think I skied like fifteen days in a row. There weren't really any days off, but we had a couple hours off in the mornings or the afternoons, so we would try and go watch events. There was a great spa at the athlete's village [...] I never got bored, it was crazy.

MJ: Have you had time to rest now you've got home?

AH: Yeah, I got home just last night, pretty late, so I'm just busy unpacking all my stuff and repacking—I actually leave today, this afternoon, I'm heading out again. But it has been nice, just to even get the one night to sleep in my own bed.

MJ: Obviously, the Winter Olympics are only once every four years, so what does a normal day look like for you? When you're not training for the Olympics?

AH: Yeah, definitely. I mean, that's the beauty, I think, of freestyle skiing, and specifically the sport that I do. We have, like, training camps, and they label them as that, and go to competitions and whatnot, but it usually just still feels like skiing to me. You know, I don't really think of any differently. So most days I'm just skiing, having a good time, hanging out. I mean, eight months out of the year I'm pretty much skiing every day, or more than that, nine months out of the year. And then in the summer, I love to go surfing. So I'll try and go on a couple surf trips during the summer, whether it's Central America or Australia or Indonesia or some somewhere—somewhere warm, usually. But yeah, the average day is just skiing or being in the outdoors and then doing a couple couple more work related things every now and then. But it's not too bad.

MJ: Have you always surfed?

AH: No, I didn't start surfing until I was about 16 or 17, so I've been surfing for like 10 years now, But I try and surf quite a bit. I'd say I get like 50 to 100 days a year, so not a ton. I make the most out of it when I go,

MJ: So I should say we're talking today because of your partnership with Rao's Homemade. Did you get a chance to eat well while you were in Italy?

AH: Yeah, it was fantastic. Honestly, the Athletes Village food was really, really good. I was thoroughly surprised—not surprised, but just, compared to the last two Olympics, it was so solid. The food was amazing. My family was there as well, because they live in Switzerland, so it's not too far away, and my parents were there the whole time. So there'd be days where I'd just go over to their apartment and my mom would make dinner. So I'd have a nice mix of, like, my mom's cooking—which was usually pasta, because she's Italian and that's kind of her go-to. She's a simple cook. She's not making anything too crazy, but it's the simple stuff that's good, yeah? And that's the stuff I like. So I'd have some, you know, some pasta with her, or whatever it might be, and then the athlete food, most of the time, but yeah, really good food.

MJ: Was that a big part of your childhood growing up? Italian food?

AH: Yeah, definitely. My dad's honestly a pretty good cook too, but my mom was usually cooking and [it was] just simple stuff. You know, whether it's just pasta, lasagna, just a simple salad. Like, I love, I love her cooking, because she doesn't try and do too much with it. She doesn't try and get anything too outside the box. I grew up in Switzerland, but I moved to the US when I was 16, and I think a lot of times in American culture, it can be a thing to try and do too much with the food. And I love that aspect too, but I love a simple meal that's not doing too much, right? And that's what I grew up on. My dad's actually really good at making pizzas, which is funny. He was like the pizza guy.

MJ: Do you think that influenced your decision to partner with Rao's Homemade?

AH: Yeah. I feel like coming into the Olympics, it was just like—being half Italian, the Olympics being in Italy, growing up on Italian food, my mom being Italian—I just felt like there were so many factors pointing towards how awesome a partnership would be within with a company that had Italian roots, and Rao's [was] the perfect partner there. I feel like the brand culture's so similar, like: keep it simple, keep it traditional. Don't try and do too much. And simple is the best way.

MJ: So, with the Olympics being in Italy: did you feel more comfortable because it was home turf, or did you feel added pressure?

AH: A bit of both. I think like there was some pressure—especially being a returning gold medalist, there's pressure to go back. And I never really felt pressure to defend the gold, necessarily. But like, there was definitely pressure just from the media, and just I was putting on myself to go back and at least get a medal. So it was great that that worked out. But it was so nice being in Italy. The food was great. I've actually been to Livigno, which is where we had all of our events a couple times before, so it felt familiar. The snow was great [...] it just was reminding me of when I'd go skiing there when I was a kid. That sort of stuff made it feel more familiar, which is nice.

MJ: Okay, I was going to ask about leaving Beijing with the gold medal four years ago, whether you felt any added pressure this year. But I guess you felt maybe like you'd already accomplished it?

AH: Yeah, yeah. I think I felt pressure from myself [about] wanting to do well again. There's definitely pressure from the media, especially being the returning gold medalist. There's just a lot of hype up. You do a lot of things relating to the Olympics for years in advance, where four years ago, I didn't have that because I wasn't coming in with the medal. So in that sense, there's definitely quite a bit of pressure. But yeah, I'm the kind of guy who's like, so proud that I got the gold already that I'm going to go out there and try and enjoy it, and obviously I'm going to try and ski my best and get another medal, but there was nothing really inside of me that was like, "I need to get another one". You know, I do five to eight slop style events every year, and you can't do well or win at every single one, because that's just not how slope style works.

MJ: And I was reading that you didn't have a coach, or you weren't in a ski team when you were younger, it was just something that you found on your own. How do you think that impacted your relationship with the sport?

AH: Yeah, yeah. So my dad just loved skiing, like he was a big skier growing up. So I'd seen some old videos of him actually doing backflip tricks on skis before it was really a sport. He was kind of doing it before it was a thing. And I saw those videos, and it just looked so fun, so I just wanted to do it myself. And then I just went out there, and my family loved skiing, so we'd go skiing every weekend. My brother's a snowboarder, but we would just go ride every weekend wherever we could. And I just loved it so much. I never had a coach until I made it on the US team. But I think it changed my perspective so much on skiing—I never got told to do it unless I wanted to do it, it was always such a pure thing. And I think when you're in a sport for so long—I'm 27, I've been doing freestyle skiing since I was 10—I think it's easy to get burnt out of it unless you truly love it. And having that upbringing where I just did it because I wanted to with my friends, and no one ever told me how to do it or why to do it, I think that just resonates with me still.

MJ: You've been doing this by yourself for a long time, as you said, and skiing is an individual sport typically. Do you feel a sense of national pressure, or a pressure to represent your country, when you go to the Olympics?

AH: No, not too much. It's interesting. Like you mentioned, skiing is an individual sport, but we travel around in a big team, and we have a bunch of coaches and staff that help us, so it almost feels like a team sport, in a way. You can never accomplish any of this stuff completely on your own, especially at this level—like the highest Olympic level. But yeah, I mean, that's the interesting part about freestyle skiing, is you're always kind of, in a way, doing it for yourself wherever you go. I don't think it changes my perspective [...] but it's definitely cool to be there and represent the U.S., represent all the people that helped you along the way. Because, you know, you couldn't have done it without any of those people.

MJ: The Winter Olympics are so big now; we saw reports come out recently that the viewership was twice as high [this year] as it was last time. So for the people who have been watching the Winter Olympics and have enjoyed the skiing: what do you think they should watch next?

AH: I think it's so cool that, with the Olympics being in Italy, it was really enjoyable for everyone to watch. I think that's always the cool part about a niche sport like freestyle skiing—you get this platform like the Olympics to hopefully get people excited about your sport. If people are excited about freestyle skiing, or they saw it for the first time at the Olympics and want to know more about it, just start looking up videos. Watch some freestyle skiing videos or watch some other events, whether it's World Cups—we have a thing called the X Games that's a pretty big one, at least on US.. television. That's what's so cool about the Olympics, is we get to showcase what's a pretty small sport to a really big audience, and hopefully inspire a couple new fans or a couple new kids to go out there and try skiing, or try freestyle skiing for the first time.

The interview has been condensed and abridged for clarity.