David Wise (freestyle skier)

David Wise (born June 30, 1990) is an American freestyle skier. He is a two-time Olympic gold medalist (2014, 2018) and a five-time X Games Gold Medalist (2012, 2013, 2014, 2018, 2023). In 2014, Wise won his third consecutive gold medal at Winter X Games XVIII in Aspen, Colorado, before heading to Sochi for the 2014 Winter Olympics. There, he became the first Olympic gold medalist in the Men's Freeski Halfpipe, which debuted in the Winter Games that year. In 2018, after struggling both personally and professionally since his win in Sochi, Wise won his fourth gold medal at the X Games just before he left for PyeongChang to defend his Olympic title. After a sub-par qualifying competition that placed him in the fifth drop-in position for the finals, Wise failed to complete each of his first two runs due, in both cases, to a binding malfunction. On his third and final run, Wise completed a career-best run to take the gold medal, the second Olympic gold medal of his career, with a score of 97.20. David Wise is still competing at age 34, recently winning bronze, behind Nick Goepper and Alex Ferreira in the first ever podium sweep by 30 year olds at a halfpipe world cup event.