00:00It was the morning of his first ever Olympic Games, but when his alarm went off, out of habit,
00:05he hit the snooze button. Moments later, his alarm went off again, and in his tired haze,
00:09Redmond Gerard once again hit snooze. The time continued to tick away, and it was beginning to
00:15seem like Red's chances of even competing in the snowboarding event he had come all this way for
00:20were slipping through his fingers before the competition even began. At just 17 years old,
00:25Red was one of the youngest athletes who was supposed to be hitting the slopes that day,
00:29starting at just two years old, Red practically spent more time on a snowboard than he did
00:34walking, and his family of nine were by his side every step of the way. They even decided to move
00:39from Ohio all the way to Colorado when Red was seven to provide more opportunities for Red to
00:45pursue his passion. After honing his skills on the Rocky Mountains, he officially joined the ranks of
00:49the professionals a year before the Olympics, when he was just 16 years old. Although he was young,
00:55Red was already performing at the highest level, taking first place in the FIS World Cup, followed
01:01by another gold medal in the Mammoth World Cup. It was beginning to seem like he just couldn't lose.
01:06Then in early 2018, Red again pulled off first place at the Toyota US Grand Prix in Aspen,
01:12qualifying him for the US Olympic team. Red was going to compete at the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang,
01:18South Korea. It was the moment he'd been working towards ever since he was a toddler,
01:22but when the day came, not everything went to plan. Red and his teammate Kyle Mack relaxed in their hotel
01:29room watching Brooklyn Nine-Nine in the evening before the big day. However, Red stayed up in bed
01:34watching the show a little too late, and he ended up dozing off in the middle of the show. When
01:40his
01:40alarm went off the next morning at 6am, in his tired haze, Red hit snooze multiple times. And it
01:46wasn't until 20 minutes later when Kyle finally shook him awake, Red jumped up and got ready as fast as
01:51he
01:52could. But he soon realized that his ski jacket was missing. With no time to go searching, Red was forced
01:57to
01:57borrow Kyle's jacket as he rushed to the slopes before it was too late. Despite the frantic morning, Red made
02:03it to the
02:03event on time. However, in the first two runs of the slopestyle event, whether it be the lack of sleep
02:09or the chaotic
02:09morning, things weren't looking great for Red. He couldn't land a full run, and he was stuck at the bottom
02:15of the
02:15leaderboard in 11th place. However, in slopestyle, the judges only count your best run. So as Red lined up for
02:22his final run, he knew it was time to lock in. And as he threw himself over each obstacle, it
02:28started to feel
02:28like it was all finally coming together. With each landing, Red's confidence came back. And as he rocketed
02:34towards the final jump, with only one more trick standing between him and potential victory, he actually
02:40looked pretty calm. And in that moment, Red catapulted from 11th place all the way up the
02:52leaderboard. And he became the youngest American man to ever win an Olympic gold medal in snowboarding.
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