 | |
| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Kevin Pearce |
| Nationality | American |
| Born | November 1, 1987 Hanover, New Hampshire |
| Medal record | ||
|---|---|---|
Representing the  United States
| ||
| Men's Snowboarding | ||
| Winter X Games | ||
 |
2008 Aspen | Big Air |
|
2008 Aspen | Slopestyle |
|
2009 Aspen | SuperPipe |
 |
2008 Aspen | SuperPipe |
Kevin Pearce (born November 1, 1987) is a mentor, health coach and motivational speaker. [1] He is also an American former professional snowboarder. He was born in Hanover, New Hampshire, and raised in Hartland, Vermont, before moving with his parents to Norwich, Vermont. He competed professionally from 2007 to 2009, when a crash during snowboard training left him with a traumatic brain injury.
Pearce won The Arctic Challenge in 2007 and completed back-to-back titles with victory in 2008. He was also the first man to earn two Air & Style rings in one season, winning the Nokia Air & Style in Munich in 2007 and the Billabong Air & Style in Innsbruck in 2008.
In the 2007–08 season he won the Swatch TTR World Snowboard Tour, garnering the TTR World Tour Champion title.
He won three medals at the 2008 Winter X Games XII in Aspen, Colorado. He was also the first athlete in X Games history to compete in three medal events in one day.[1]
Pearce is a member of the Frends Crew (spelled without the "i" to emphasize the collective nature of the group) made up of snowboarders Mason Aguirre, Danny Davis, Scotty Lago, Keir Dillon, Mikkel Bang, Jack Mitrani, and Luke Mitrani. Frends is a group of riders who turned their initial friendship into a formal alliance in 2007 to move the sport away from its recent competitive and business focus and return the sport to its grassroots, collegial beginnings.[2]
On December 31, 2009, Pearce was critically injured during training in Park City, Utah on the same halfpipe that would kill fellow skier Sarah Burke in 2012. He struck his head above the left eye halfway down the pipe during a half-pipe training run trying a maneuver called a cab double cork. He was flown to the University of Utah Medical Center in Salt Lake City.[3] On January 26, 2010, Pearce was transferred out of critical care and in early February was moved to Craig Hospital in Denver, Colorado, a rehabilitation center that specializes in traumatic brain injuries.[4] By June, Pearce was back with his family in Vermont.[5]
In an August 23, 2010, interview, Pearce said he was lucky to recover and "...excited to get back onto a snowboard."[6] However, in a December 2011 interview with NBC, he said he will not compete again, but he did get back on a snowboard later that year.[7]
Pearce is a son of noted international glass artist Simon Pearce, who has a chain of upscale retail stores in the Northeast United States. Kevin's mother, Pia Pearce, is the sister-in-law[8] of Cyrus Vance Jr., the District Attorney of New York County (Manhattan). Kevin Pearce is the youngest of Simon and Pia Pearce's four sons. His brothers David, who has Down syndrome, Andrew, and Adam are also snowboarders. Pearce is currently married to a former executive at Twitter [Kaitlyn Pearce] and has two young children aged 2 and 2 months.
Kevin Pearce and The Frends crew have hosted a Signature Session™ at High Cascade Snowboard Camp each summer since 2008.[9] At camp, Pearce spends time with young snowboarders, helping to coach, mentor and inspire.
The 2013 documentary The Crash Reel by Lucy Walker documents Pearce's preparations for the 2010 Winter Olympics games, the 2009 injury, and his subsequent rehabilitation.[10]
