Jeret peterson why

He was just the opposite. He was one of the most colorful of athletes, and he wore his heart on his sleeve -- never more than on Feb. It was a poignant chapter to a career that, until then, had been filled with success on the smaller stages of his fringe sport but defined in the mainstream by his moment at the Torino Olympics where, after finishing seventh, he was sent home early after a minor scuffle with a buddy in the street.

Over the next months and years, he began filling in the details of a life story replete with incredible highlights and crushing disappointments. While in Italy, he was still reeling from the suicide of a friend, who shot himself in front of Peterson only months before.

Peterson also had problems with alcohol and depression and admitted he had his own thoughts of suicide, all stemming from a childhood in which he was sexually abused and lost his year-old sister to a drunken driver.

He picked up his nickname as a young boy because the big helmet he wore reminded his coaches of Speed Racer of cartoon fame. But as his career progressed, he became better known for his signature jump, the "Hurricane" -- five twists packed into three somersaults as he vaulted off the snowy ramp and flew 50 feet in the air.

It was high-risk, high-reward, and once Peterson started working on it in , he insisted he'd have it no other way. It was a sight to behold when he landed it, and the judges rewarded him for taking the chance. Helped by the huge difficulty marks for the jump, he still holds the two-jump scoring record of From the time I first started talking to him about five twists, he never gave up on it. I know that he's had a roller coaster of a journey.

Fellow U. Ski Teamers and friends took to Twitter last week to express their horror at what happened and to offer up anecdotes of great nights spent with Speedy. It was October of in Colorado Springs. Olympic Team press junket at which we and other media outlets had the opportunity to interview many of the athletes set to wear the red, white and blue at the Winter Games the following February in Turin, Italy.

Speedy was on the docket as well. He hoped to get the chance to give it a try in Turin. Later that night, after grabbing dinner with some co-workers, I made my way back to the hotel and stopped at the bar for a drink. My co-workers and I saw Speedy and a couple of friends sitting in a corner, and we went over, re-introduced ourselves and joined them.

Our group chitchatted for a couple of hours, discussing the upcoming Games, what the pressure was like up at the top of the ramp waiting to jump and about how little the Olympic athletes were paid.

He was fun, incredibly kind and friendly and just seemed like a good, down-to-earth guy. And there was some bitterness and sadness underneath the happy-go-lucky exterior.

Peterson came in seventh place in Turin and was sent home early from the games for getting into a brawl with a friend after a night out celebrating with the team. Other risk factors include substance abuse, childhood traumas, depression and loss, all of which Peterson experienced.

Kaslow said that these risks could be managed through good social support, coping skills, religious or spiritual involvement, or therapy. In , Peterson said that he had stopped drinking. But last Friday, he was arrested outside Hailey, Idaho, for drunken driving.

He pleaded not guilty. The Vancouver games were redeeming for Peterson's career and public image. Even though he had been the World Cup champion, a seven-time winner on the World Cup circuit, a three-time American champion and a three-time Olympic team member, he was often remembered for his tumultuous experience in Turin. But when he nailed his signature jump in Vancouver and came away with the silver medal, he walked off Cypress Mountain with tears streaming down his face and hope for the future.

And while unlike Holcomb, Peterson doesn't posthumously appear in the documentary, his story is honored. He had a reputation as a happy-go-lucky guy, according to the documentary, but he was also struggling with depression. In the documentary, Peterson's friend and fellow freestyle skier, Jeremy Bloom, reveals that he first learned of Peterson's depression in while they were training for the games.

I was [caught] so off guard because I think of Speedy as somebody who's always been so happy and so successful and I didn't know how to react. According to his mother, Linda Peterson, who appears in The Weight of Gold, the former skier had been sexually abused as a boy and had witnessed his roommate die by suicide six months before the Turin games.