By Mike Perleberg Nick Goepper (right) with his family at the Winter Olympics in South Korea. Photo by Kasey Goepper. (Lawrenceburg, Ind.) - Linda Goepper, mom of southeastern Indiana Olympian Nick Goepper, reveals that the whole family was nervous when Nick did not perform well on his first two runs in the men’s ski slopestyle finals at the Winter Olympics. But Nick, 23, ended up stomping his third and final run with a 95.00. The first time he saw his family – they also made the trip to PyeongChange, South Korea to support him – after winning the silver medal was at the medal podium. “The first thing he did was apologize to us,” Linda said on Eagle Country 99.3 Tuesday morning. “He was like ‘I am so sorry that I didn’t land the first or the second run and then I waited until the end.’ He knew how stressful it would be on us, and I’m sure it was stressful for him as well.” LISTEN TO THE FULL INTERVIEW WITH LINDA GOEPPER IN THE AUDIO PLAYER BELOW [audio mp3="http://eaglecountryonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/linda-goepper-02272018.mp3"][/audio] If the audio player does not appear, click here to listen to the interview. Linda said Nick’s favorite picture from the 2018 Olympics was of him riding the chair lift to the top of the mountain before that epic third run through the slopestyle course. “If you zoom in on it and you look at his face, that is the face of a competitor,” the two-time Olympic medalist’s mom said.
Linda also spoke candidly about Nick’s struggles with alcohol abuse and depression following his bronze medal win at the Sochi, Russia Olympics in 2014. The episode included throwing rocks at cars in Hidden Valley one morning. “It was a real challenge. Actually that started way before the Olympics. The Olympics just brought it all to a head. As my father used to say, it was the straw that broke the camel’s back. He realized, and we realized, that with all the additional pressure, he did not have the coping mechanisms needed to deal with that extra pressure. He tried to deal with it the only way he knew how to deal with it and that was to sink into this crazy depression,” she said. Nick, Linda said, felt as though he let down his community because he didn’t bring home the gold. But many other factors led to the destructive behavior, including an injury that kept him from his training routine. “What was awesome about Nick was that he was able to approach this the way he approaches his athletic endeavors. He was able to identify his goal, which was to get better and work as hard as he needed to work to get better,” she said. “He was willing to say I need help. He was willing to at age 19, check himself into the emergency room. He was willing to go to the counseling sessions. He was willing to go to the programs that he needed to.” “We were lucky, lucky, lucky that Nick was agreeable and recognized that those were the things that we needed to do. (Husband) Chris and I were able to do all kinds of research and find the appropriate resources.” She says his smiles over the past number of months have been genuine and happy. Mom even dished on her son’s “amazing, athletic, adventuresome” girlfriend. Nick Goepper will be back in his hometown very soon. The 23-year-old from Hidden Valley will be welcomed back to Perfect North Slopes on Sunday, March 4. Goepper will be honored with a ceremony starting at 3:00 p.m. All are welcome to attend. On Monday, the Cincinnati Reds announced that Goepper will throw out the ceremonial first pitch at the Reds’ Opening Day game on Thursday, March 29.
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