American freestyle skier Jaelin Kauf joins Cheddar News to talk about taking home the silver medal in the Women's Moguls Final at the 2022 Winter Olympics. 

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Olympian Jaelin Kauf Takes Home Silver at 2022 Winter Olympics

come back guys between bouts of cheddar news, I'm baker machado in new york and on sunday, just two days into the Winter Games. American freestyle skier, Jalen cough earned a silver in the moguls competition in Beijing, the 25 year old cruise through her final run, earning an 80.28 in 26.49 alongside a backflip mute grab on the top aerial and a backflip iron cross on the bottom Cough is the first American to medal in women's moguls since Hannah Kearney did it back in 2014. So we're super excited about this joining us now to talk about her big win is American freestyle Skier Jalen Cough, Jalen, congratulations on taking silver. Thank you, thanks so much. So what does it mean to be back home with this amazing accomplishment? Yeah, it's so special to be bringing a metal home back to everyone, you know, there's so many people that went into getting me here and, and weren't able to be over at the olympics with me. Um, and so to be able to bring a medal back home and celebrate with family and friends is really special. So let's talk about this amazing run that you just had, you picked up so much speed while you were going, what was going through your mind when this was all happening here. Um, I was just kind of letting it all happen. I went pretty big on the topic, a little bigger than I had been going um and just started cruising out of top pair with a lot of speed and and just had to fight for it and stick with it and and just trust myself that um I was gonna make it down and it was gonna be good. So for a lot of viewers who have been watching the olympics like me, they've noticed that the snow that you're skiing on is artificial snow, which I don't think a lot of people know have you had a lot of experience when it comes to artificial snow, Does that sort of change your game plan in terms of how you go after it knowing that this is not real snow? Um I mean honestly, most of our courses are built with man made snow. It takes a lot of snow to to make the jumps and all of the moguls and so we're very used to um skiing on courses that are man made um And I mean it was a really good course, a really good venue and and the snow is really nice over there. So you, this is your second Olympics, you competed in the 2018 pyung chain games. What was that experience? Like? That was different from this one. Did you enjoy this one much better because you meddled here? Um Yeah, it was very different. I went into the last olympics um ranked number one kind of expected to win and so it was just a lot of pressure. Um and I was very like star struck by the whole experience of first time being at the olympics um and being a part of it all? Um and so this time going back was just a little more like I knew what to expect. Um As far as like, you know, the village and the whole olympic experience, but also it was as far as the competition went, I can only imagine how anxious of the time it is to go and just compete the olympics, but given the sort of circumstances that you're having to go against with Covid in all these other sorts of things, does that get into your mind also when you're competing, because you're like, what is happening all around us? This is like the craziest olympic games ever. Yeah, I think, I mean it was definitely crazy like leading up to it, you know, having to be so careful with Covid, um like pretty isolated, not being able to see family and friends, but then once the competition came around it was like almost a sigh of relief with all of that, like we could finally just focus on competing. We made it there. It was happening. Um Yeah, so how heavy is your metal, like is this like the heaviest thing you've ever worn in your life? It's very heavy. Yeah, surprisingly heavy. That's so funny. So you, by the way, have tons of skiing in your blood. I mean, your mom is a two time champion on the pro mogul tour. Your dad is a five time pro mogul mogul tour champion. What sort of lessons did maybe your parents instilling you that got you to this amazing moment where you're meddling now at the olympics. Yeah, I mean growing up obviously a big ski family and and that's just what we did. Um that's what yeah, we always just did as a family and they just taught me a love for it, a passion for the sport of Mongol scheme, but also just being out on the hill and I think that's the biggest thing like through my whole career, but this olympics especially was just Go out, do my thing, have fun with it and don't worry about the rest. So I know you probably hate this question a lot, but do you want to go to the Olympics in 2026 in Milan, are we going to see you at those winter games to continue this? Uh Yeah, I think so. Um I mean I'm having so much fun skiing right now and competing and can't imagine being done anytime soon. So definitely setting my sights on 2026 now, just keep the party going. Congratulations Jalen, we're so proud of you, Jalen cough, american freestyle skier, two time world champion and winter olympic silver medalist joining us here on chatter news