Jonathan William Moseley, better known as
Jonny Moseley (born August 27, 1975) is the first
Puerto RicanPuerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is a self-governing unincorporated territory of the United States located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of the Virgin Islands...
to become a member of the
U.S. Ski TeamThe United States Ski Team, operated under the auspices of the United States Ski and Snowboard Association , develops and supports men's and women's athletes in the sports of alpine skiing, disabled alpine, freestyle skiing, cross country, disabled cross country, ski jumping, and Nordic...
.
Moseley was born in
San JuanSan Juan is the capital and largest municipality in Puerto Rico. As of the 2000 census, it has a population of 433,733, making it the 42nd-largest city under the jurisdiction of the United States. San Juan was founded by Spanish colonists in 1521, who called it Ciudad de Puerto Rico...
,
Puerto RicoPuerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is a self-governing unincorporated territory of the United States located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of the Virgin Islands...
. In 1978, he saw snow for the first time when his family went on a trip to
CaliforniaCalifornia is the most populous state in the United States, and the third largest by area. California is the second most populous sub-national entity in the Americas, behind only São Paulo, Brazil...
. Eventually, his family moved to
Tiburon, CaliforniaTiburon is an incorporated town in Marin County, California. It occupies most of the Tiburon Peninsula, which reaches south into the San Francisco Bay. The smaller city of Belvedere occupies the south-east part of the peninsula and is contiguous with Tiburon...
, a suburb north of San Francisco where he attended
The Branson SchoolThe Branson School in Ross, California is a private, co-educational, college-preparatory day school with 320 students enrolled in grades 9 through 12....
in Ross, California. His family would go to the Sierra Nevada every weekend.
Jonathan William Moseley, better known as
Jonny Moseley (born August 27, 1975) is the first
Puerto RicanPuerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is a self-governing unincorporated territory of the United States located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of the Virgin Islands...
to become a member of the
U.S. Ski TeamThe United States Ski Team, operated under the auspices of the United States Ski and Snowboard Association , develops and supports men's and women's athletes in the sports of alpine skiing, disabled alpine, freestyle skiing, cross country, disabled cross country, ski jumping, and Nordic...
.
Early years
Moseley was born in
San JuanSan Juan is the capital and largest municipality in Puerto Rico. As of the 2000 census, it has a population of 433,733, making it the 42nd-largest city under the jurisdiction of the United States. San Juan was founded by Spanish colonists in 1521, who called it Ciudad de Puerto Rico...
,
Puerto RicoPuerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is a self-governing unincorporated territory of the United States located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of the Virgin Islands...
. In 1978, he saw snow for the first time when his family went on a trip to
CaliforniaCalifornia is the most populous state in the United States, and the third largest by area. California is the second most populous sub-national entity in the Americas, behind only São Paulo, Brazil...
. Eventually, his family moved to
Tiburon, CaliforniaTiburon is an incorporated town in Marin County, California. It occupies most of the Tiburon Peninsula, which reaches south into the San Francisco Bay. The smaller city of Belvedere occupies the south-east part of the peninsula and is contiguous with Tiburon...
, a suburb north of San Francisco where he attended
The Branson SchoolThe Branson School in Ross, California is a private, co-educational, college-preparatory day school with 320 students enrolled in grades 9 through 12....
in Ross, California. His family would go to the Sierra Nevada every weekend. This and the fact that he was a better skier than his brothers inspired the then 9 year old Moseley to take skiing lessons. In 1992, he joined the
Squaw Valley Freestyle Ski TeamSquaw Valley can refer to the following places in California in the United States:*Squaw Valley, Fresno County, California, a census-designated place located in Fresno County, California...
and soon won his first Junior National title in Freestyle Skiing; he graduated from high school in 1993 and that same year was selected for the U.S. Ski Team.
United States Ski Team
Moseley tried but did not qualify for the
1994 Winter Olympics-Aerials:February 24, 1994-Moguls:February 16, 1994-Aerials:February 24, 1994-Moguls:February 16, 1994-External links:*...
held at Lille hammer,
NorwayNorway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a country in Northern Europe occupying the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, as well as Jan Mayen and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard under the Spitsbergen Treaty...
and became determined to qualify for the 1998 Olympics. In 1995, he enrolled at
UC-DavisThe University of California, Davis is a public research university located in Davis, California, and one of ten campuses in the University of California system. Commonly referred to as UC Davis, the school was originally established in 1905 as the University Farm, an extension of UC Berkeley. UC...
but, his education was interrupted by his intense training; it wasn't until 2000 that he resumed his studies. The following year, he won his first World Cup moguls event.
In 1998, Moseley participated and won the first two World Cup events of the year; this led to his participation in the
1998 Winter Olympics-Men's aerials:February 17, 1998-Men's moguls:February 10, 1998-Women's aerials:February 17, 1998-Women's moguls:February 10, 1998-External links:*...
held in Nagano,
Japanis an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, People's Republic of China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
, where he won a gold medal. Later that year he secured the 1998 World Cup Mogul Skiing title with nine wins that season. He also won the U.S. National title.
In 1999, Moseley challenged the International Skiing federation to change their policy and to allow their athletes to participate in professional events, such as
ESPNESPN is an American cable television network dedicated to broadcasting and producing sports-related programming 24 hours a day....
's
X GamesThe X Games is a commercial annual sports event, controlled and arranged by Disney-owned US sports broadcaster ESPN, which focuses on extreme action sports intended for Generation X and Generation Y viewers. The games started in 1995....
.
In 2000, Moseley won the U.S. Free skiing Open and in 2001 regained a spot in the U.S. Ski Team at the World Cup qualifications held at Sunday River,
MaineThe State of Maine is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States, bordering the Atlantic Ocean to the southeast, New Hampshire to the southwest, and the Canadian provinces of Quebec to the northwest and New Brunswick to the northeast. Maine is the northernmost portion of...
. In 2002, Moseley competed but came in fourth place in the Olympic Games.
In 2002, Moseley gave the commencement convocation address at UC Berkeley. The choice by the senior class committee was controversial at the time because Moseley had dropped out of college.
Honors and recognitions
Among the honors and recognitions which Jonny Moseley has received is a parade in his honor where San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown declared a "Jonny Moseley Day" and handed him the "Key" to the city. He was named "Sportsman of the Year" (1998) by the U.S. Olympic Committee and has been featured on the cover of Freeskier and Rolling Stone magazines.
Personal life
Moseley married Malia Rich, a business manager, on March 25, 2006, in
Telluride, ColoradoThe Town of Telluride is a Home Rule Municipality that is the county seat and the most populous town of San Miguel County in the southwestern portion of the U.S. state of Colorado. The town is a former silver mining camp on the San Miguel River in the western San Juan Mountains...
. Moseley met Rich in high school; the couple started dating in 2001 and got engaged on April 20, 2003.
On September 4, 2007, Rich gave birth to the couple's first child, named Jonathan William Moseley, Jr. "Jack" in San Francisco,
CaliforniaCalifornia is the most populous state in the United States, and the third largest by area. California is the second most populous sub-national entity in the Americas, behind only São Paulo, Brazil...
.
Later years
Moseley launched a web site which sells products with his logo on them and has appeared on Ads for McDonalds, Sprint and
BudweiserBudweiser is an American-style lager and is one of the most popular beers in the United States. Budweiser is made with a large proportion of rice in addition to hops and barley malt. Budweiser is produced in various breweries located around the United States and the rest of the world. It is a...
.
Moseley, who currently lives in California, was the host of three seasons of the
MTVMTV is a cable television network based in New York City and launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs...
reality show
Real World/Road Rules ChallengeReal World/Road Rules Challenge is a reality television game show on MTV that is both dependent on and spun off from the network's two flagship reality shows, The Real World and the now cancelled series, Road Rules. The title of the show was originally Road Rules: All Stars before it was changed to...
. He is part of the celebrity panel of judges (along with
Steve GarveySteven Patrick Garvey is a former Major League Baseball first baseman, and current Southern California businessman. Garvey was a one time NL MVP, 10 time All Star, and holds the National League record for consecutive games played .-Playing career:Born in Tampa, FL to parents who had recently...
and
Oksana BaiulOksana Baiul is a Ukrainian professional figure skater. She is the 1994 Olympic Champion.-Early life:Baiul was born in Dnipropetrovsk, Ukrainian SSR. She was raised solely by her mother, Marina, after her parents divorced when Oksana was two years old...
) on the
ABCThe American Broadcasting Company is an American television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. It first broadcast on television in 1948...
show "
Master of ChampionsMaster of Champions was a show which began airing June 22, 2006 on ABC. The show format was based on a Nippon Television original series entitled World Records. The show was reformatted and produced in the United States by Y27 Entertainment for ABC. The show was hosted by Chris Leary and the...
".
He graduated from the
University of California, BerkeleyThe University of California, Berkeley is a public research university located in Berkeley, California, United States. The oldest of the ten major campuses affiliated with the University of California, Berkeley offers some 300 undergraduate and graduate degree programs in a wide range of disciplines...
on May 17, 2007 with a
B.A.Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences or both....
in
American StudiesAmerican studies or American civilization is an interdisciplinary field dealing with the study of the United States. It incorporates the study of economics, history, literature, art, the media, film, urban studies, women's studies, anthropology, sociology, and culture of the United States, among...
focusing on Consumer and Popular Culture.
On
X-PlayX-Play is a TV program about video games, known for its reviews and comedy skits...
, a video game review show on the G4
cable networkA cable channel is a television channel available via cable television, particularly in the United States. Such channels are usually also available via satellite television, including direct broadcast satellite providers such as DirecTV and Dish Network...
, Moseley has become a running gag during reviews, due mostly to the ridiculousness of his dialogue (along with the acting) in the opening
FMVFull motion video based games, usually abbreviated as FMV-based games, are video games that rely upon pre-recorded TV-quality movie or animation rather than sprites, vectors or 3D models to display action in the game. A diverse set of games utilized this format...
for the
PS2The PlayStation 2 is a sixth-generation video game console manufactured by Sony. The PS2 console is the sequel to the original PlayStation console. The successor to the PlayStation, and the predecessor to the PlayStation 3, the PlayStation 2 forms part of the PlayStation series of video game...
game he endorsed,
Jonny Moseley Mad Trix, which was universally panned and contained an oft-mocked quote that sets up the game's
plot deviceA plot device is an object or character in a story whose sole purpose is to advance the plot of the story, or alternatively to overcome some difficulty in the plot....
:
"What if it snowed in San Francisco?"
Moseley later founded the
ICER AIRICER AIR is an urban big-air ski and snowboard event first held on one of San Francisco’s steepest streets and is now held annually at AT&T Park, home of the San Francisco Giants.-History:...
big air ski and snowboard event on September 2005 in San Francisco on the street by dumping 300 tons of snow - a clear reference of the above quote. He had personally performed trick jumps as well. The annual event moved to
AT&T ParkAT&T Park is an open-air baseball park, home to the San Francisco Giants of Major League Baseball and starting in 2009 will be the home of the California Redwoods of the United Football League. The park also hosts the Emerald Bowl, a college football bowl game, every year...
in 2006.
Moseley is famous for an aerial ski move called "The Dinner Roll". Moseley talked about it during a 2002 speech at UC Berkeley:
"The Dinner Roll is a trick I developed for the ’99 X-Games. It’s a 720 degree off axis rotation, wherein you ski off the jump, do two full rotations, one on the horizontal plane and the other on the vertical plane. At the X-Games where everything is "extreme" and "rad" the jumps are big, and you have lots of time in the air. The Olympic moguls course is a whole different ball game. It’s steep, with tight turns, and a small narrow technical jump, with an unforgiving landing. The trick was so new that we had to appeal to the Olympic Skiing Federation in order just to do it. We had to show them that it fell within their rule stating "no inverted tricks in the moguls" and also prove that it was not dangerous. After lobbying and video explanation we pushed it through by one vote, much to the chagrin of the European countries."
In 2007, Moseley became an investor and show host for The Ski Channel television network. He hosted the launch party for the channel in
Los AngelesLos Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the municipality of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123.445 inhabitants...
which drew celebrities from the snow sport world and mainstream including:
Julia MancusoJulia Mancuso , is an alpine ski racer with the U.S. Ski Team. She was the gold medalist in the giant slalom at the 2006 Winter Olympics. The daughter of Ciro Mancuso, she resides in Olympic Valley, California....
,
Kristina KoznickKristina Koznick is a former alpine ski racer on the U.S. Ski Team; she competed primarily as a slalom racer...
, Lauren Ross and Dash Longe and an assortment of other celebrities attended:
Alexandra PaulAlexandra Elizabeth Paul is an American actress. She is probably best known for her role as Lt. Stephanie Holden in the television series Baywatch from 1992–97. She has starred in over 60 movies and television programs....
,
Donna MillsDonna Mills is an American actress. Among her many television appearances was a continuing role as Abby Cunningham on the primetime soap opera Knots Landing.-Early years:...
,
Melissa RiversMelissa Joan Rivers is an American television co-host and the daughter of Joan Rivers.-Biography:...
,
Dawnn LewisDawnn Lewis is an American actress and singer, perhaps best known for her roles on sitcoms such as A Different World and in the first season of Hangin' with Mr. Cooper....
, Jaron Lowenstein,
Scott GrimesScott Richard Grimes is an American actor, voice artist and musician. Some of his most prominent roles are his appearances in Band of Brothers as Technical Sergeant Donald Malarkey, ER as Dr...
,
Kevin DurandKevin Serge Durand is a Canadian actor known for his roles as Joshua in Dark Angel, Martin Keamy in Lost, and as Fred J. Dukes in X-Men Origins: Wolverine.-Early life:...
,
Amy PietzAmy Pietz is an American film and television actress.-Early life:Pietz was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the adopted daughter of Nancy, a nurse, and Arnold Pietz, a truck driver...
, Jason Gray Stanford,
Sinjin SmithChristopher St. John Smith was born on May 7, 1957 in Santa Monica, California. He goes by his middle name; "Sinjin" is the Old English pronunciation of St. John. He is a professional beach volleyball player....
,
Pam ShriverPamela Howard Shriver Lazenby , is a former professional tennis player and current sports broadcaster from the United States. During the 1980s and 1990s, she won 133 top-level titles, including 21 women's doubles titles and 1 mixed doubles title at Grand Slam tournaments...
and
George LazenbyGeorge Robert Lazenby is an Australian actor and former model, best known for portraying James Bond in the 1969 film On Her Majesty's Secret Service.-Early life:...
.
In 2008,
Warren Miller's Children of Winter was released with Moseley as the narrator. He was also in the movie as he has been in a few
Warren MillerWarren Miller is an American ski and snowboarding filmmaker. He is the founder of Warren Miller Entertainment and produced, directed and narrated his films until 1988. His credits include over 750 sports films, several books and hundreds of published non-fiction stories...
ski movies in the past.
External links