It’s been a year since last year’s Olympic silver in Beijing and last night in Aspen, CO it was about time Reno’s own David Wise showed up to again collect on his life-long talent and passion winning a fifth gold medal in the 2023 X Games. I feel such hometown pride for him and am lucky I have been able to spend time with him and his family.
A little over a year ago I got to spend the day with David, his wife Alexandra and his two adorable children. We hung out at his home, had tea and cookies and I had the unexpected pleasure of tagging along to watch him play ice hockey with his kids on a pond near their Verdi, NV home.
I was covering David’s impending 2022 Olympic journey to Beijing where he once again medaled, this time in silver for Team USA. Wise became USA’s most seasoned free ski medalist in Beijing and then (at that time) would not say whether he would be shooting for the 2026 Milano Cortina Games, but after earning yesterday’s fifth gold in the 2023 X-Games we can only hope we see more big air from Reno’s favorite Olympian.
Here is a republication of my 2022 article on David Wise:
Peace & Precision
Somehow these two words remain top of mind long after spending the afternoon with two-time Olympic gold medalist David Wise and his family just days before Christmas at his home in Reno, Nevada.
The peace part was evident in David’s attitude about his quickly approaching 2022 Olympic trials that were by no means a lock in spite of David’s prominence in his sport of freestyle skiing. On this day during our Kids Love Tahoe photo shoot he just simply exuded quiet confidence in midst of what some would call chaos.
Family obligations, holidays, multiple media appearances, intense travel and competitions starting immediately after Christmas and concluding—within days—with the biggest fight of his career to date; once again earning a coveted spot on Team USA this time in the 2022 Winter Olympic Games held February in Beijing, China.
The corresponding impression of precision comes not only from what is known of his dominance in his sport, but also even more holistically in the way he chooses to live his life. The types of decisions and commitments he makes, the high-level values and accountability he upholds for himself, his career and his family have helped him achieve a precise vision for his life all while still maintaining a notably grateful and humble nature.
During a break from our photo shoot David shared the story of how he came into the sport of skiing— not hard to imagine with his being raised within an hour of many world-class skiing resorts. Surprisingly though he revealed that his first love was baseball, and he still really loves baseball—in fact he routinely plays on local softball teams in his limited free time.
In grade school David knew as much as he loved baseball he was young for his grade and his teammates were bigger and more athletically developed at that stage. David wanted to not just be good at his sport, he wanted to be great, so he thoughtfully pivoted and began to place more of his focus on excelling in the sport of skiing. It seems remarkable that at such a young age David would have had the instinct that would ultimately lead him to what today is the opportunity for a third Olympic medal in a sport where he is the only person to ever have achieved gold- Olympic Men’s Halfpipe.
Much of David’s success can be credited to the support of his family and their commitment to his career. Alexandra Wise, David’s wife and their two children; daughter Nayeli age (then) 10 and son Malachi age (then) 7 provide David all of the “why” and a fair amount of the “how” that he needs to pull through and perform with such confidence and proficiency when the pressure to balance an elite sports career with family life would unravel even the most promising athletes.
David is the first to commend Alexandra for the daily sacrifices she makes to uphold the family and David’s career. Their partnership is rooted in deeply shared values and a commitment to make their marriage work. They both firmly believe that the best gift you could give your children is a strong marriage so to that end they have built a life around protecting and prioritizing their union.
Another of their family’s foundational values is giving back to the community both globally and locally. Through World Vision the Wise’s have sponsored children in Ethiopia and have made it a family project as they select kids that have the same birthdays as Nayeli and Malachi so that their kids can appreciate a larger world view of need and service. The Wises also support the local community, especially the Food Bank of Northern Nevada and Foster the City a local faith-based adoption effort managed by Living Stones church. Alexandra is especially passionate about the most vulnerable members of our community, parentless, homeless children—(updated) the family is currently lovingly fostering a child.
Northern Nevada life for the Wises encompasses as well a responsibility and reverence for the land that they call home. Their property and the surrounding landscape is the perfect backdrop to a self-sufficient lifestyle: hobby-farming, gardening, hunting and archery. The family provides for themselves wholesome homegrown vegetables, fresh eggs from their chickens and game meat procured by David himself. In fact David mentioned to me that the family has not purchased store bought meat in years.
Looking at a slice of his life, it is presumable that David through the support of his well-grounded family life will tackle his three-peat Olympic medal challenge with the confidence and character that only a man who knows that his true place in this world isn’t only atop a pair of skis and a podium.
