Jonny Moseley

Jonny Moseley revived the sport of freestyle skiing in America by winning gold at the 1998 Winter Olympics before moving into television as the hosts of reality game shows "Real World/Road Rules Challenge" (MTV, 1998-) and "American Ninja Warrior" (G4, 2009-). Born in San Juan, Puerto Rico, but raised in California, Moseley first hit the slopes aged just three, and later joined his older brothers Rick and Jeff on the Squaw Valley freestyle team. He won the US Junior National title as a 15-year-old and in 1993 competed in his first World Cup, before suffering a setback in 1994 when he failed to qualify for the Lillehammer Winter Olympics. He bounced back a year later when he picked up a moguls combined bronze at the World Championships and in 1996 was crowned the World Cup freestyle champion. Moseley secured qualification for the 1998 Nagano Winter Olympics by winning the first two World Cup competitions of the year. In his moguls event he perfected his ground-breaking 360-degree mute grab in front of a prime-time audience to earn America's first gold of the Games and instant fame. Moseley subsequently appeared on the late-night chat show circuit, the cover of Rolling Stone and was personally congratulated by Bill Clinton, and also narrated or appeared in over a dozen skiing documentaries. Moseley then developed his very own event, a combination of slopestyle and ski cross dubbed the Jonny Moseley Invitational, and used his new-found high profile to persuade the International Skiing Federation to overturn their ban on athletes appearing in professional competitions staged by other governing bodies. As a result, he became the first ever skier to win a medal at both the Olympics and X Games, winning silver at the latter in the 1999 Big Air event, before adding to his trophy haul with victory at the 2000 U.S. Freeskiing Open. He eventually finished his skiing career with a fourth-place finish at the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics where he showcased his pioneering and controversial aerial move, the Dinner Roll, before switching his focus to television. After impressing as guest host of "Saturday Night Live" (NBC, 1975-), Moseley was appointed the host of reality game show "Real World/Road Rules Challenge" (MTV, 1998-), joined the judging panel of world records series "Master of Champions" (ABC, 2006) and finished in third-place alongside partner Brooke Castile on the short-lived "Skating with the Stars" (NBC, ABC, 2010), while also finding the time to earn an American Studies degree from the University of California, Berkeley. He then hosted web series "Focus Rally America" (2011) and "The Controller: Battlefield 3" (2011), revisited his first franchise as the host of "The Challenge: After Show" (MTV, 2012-14), and joined Matt Iseman as the fourth season co-host of obstacle competition "American Ninja Warrior" (G4, 2009-). Moseley also utilized his experience on the slopes as a regular analyst for NBC's coverage of the Winter OIympics and World Cup freestyle competitions, and narrated numerous documentaries by veteran skiing filmmaker Warren Miller.