Freestyle nationals: Wilson goes big; Bloom on hand

Former moguls skier Jeremy Bloom was on hand at the 2007 Sprint U.S. Freestyle Championships not to ski but to present the Rip It Trick of the Day award to the moguls skier who threw the biggest air off the two jumps. The winner, Bryon Wilson, also could have received an award for the day’s biggest crash.
    Wilson threw a huge back-double-full on the first jump in his final moguls run, then a spread eagle off the second jump, but slammed into the snow when he landed and was unable to finish. Still, the award wasn’t for landing. It was for air, and the bigger the better.
    Bloom presented a sore, limping Wilson with a $2,500 check. “I would have liked to ski it top to bottom and seen what I could have done, but 2,500 bucks is pretty good,” said Wilson, who won the junior world champion moguls crown five days earlier.
KILLINGTON, Vermont — Former moguls skier Jeremy Bloom was on hand at the 2007 Sprint U.S. Freestyle Championships not to ski but to present the Rip It Trick of the Day award to the moguls skier who threw the biggest air off the two jumps. The winner, Bryon Wilson, also could have received an award for the day’s biggest crash.
    Wilson threw a huge back-double-full on the first jump in his final moguls run, then a spread eagle off the second jump, but slammed into the snow when he landed and was unable to finish. Still, the award wasn’t for landing. It was for air, and the bigger the better.
    Bloom presented a sore, limping Wilson with a $2,500 check. “I would have liked to ski it top to bottom and seen what I could have done, but 2,500 bucks is pretty good,” said Wilson, who won the junior world champion moguls crown five days earlier.
    Wearing running shoes and a low-key black Rip It jacket, Bloom flew under the radar during most of the moguls competition at Killington’s Bear Mountain. Only a few former teammates and giggling girls seemed to recognize him, perhaps because he wasn’t on skis. In fact, he said he hasn’t been on skis since the 2006 Winter Olympics more than a year ago.
    Bloom returned from Torino and immediately pursued his other passion: football. A heralded player for the University of Colorado Buffaloes, he had taken two years off the field to ski. Now it was time to hang up the skis and hit the turf. He was a fifth-round draft pick for the Philadelphia Eagles last spring. But over the summer, he injured his hamstring and was put on the team’s injured reserve list. The only preseason action Bloom saw was against Baltimore, when he averaged 22.5 yards on two kickoff returns and was back on a punt return.
    “My hamstring is great now,” Bloom said. “So I’m all healed up. I had a great first year in the NFL. I got to learn so much about the game, do everything that the Eagles did, just not playing the game. I needed that year immersed in the game because I’d taken two years off to compete in the 2006 Olympics and getting back into football so quickly. The challenge was a little too great for my body to get back in shape.”
    The Eagles began off-season training on March 19, and Bloom is anxious for the season to begin. “I can’t wait,” he said. “I haven’t competed since the Olympics in anything. I’m kind of going crazy without having something to compete in. So I’m looking forward to it.”
    Rip It, we hope, is only his sponsor and not the theme for his NFL career.