Athlete profile: Jeff Bean

Posted: Tue February 3, 1998 at 5:00 PM ET

Athlete notes

The youngest member of a dominant Canadian squad that placed four aerialists in the top five of last year's World Cup standings, Bean hopes that his development of a new jump this past summer will propel him to even greater heights...he spent much of the summer on a water jump in Whistler, British Columbia working on the quadruple twisting, triple flip, a move that he feels he had to have in his repertoire to crack the sport's elite...says Bean on his new trick: "For me, it's something that was needed, because that's what 90 percent of the top guys are doing. It worked pretty well in the water and I prefer jumping on the snow anyway"...unfortunately, he also spent a good part of the summer shuttling back and forth between Whistler and home, as his mother, 50, afflicted with breast cancer, grew sick and Eventsually passed away..."There's nothing really that you can do about it," says Bean of his mother's death from a disease that is common on her side of the family. "Life just has to go on. I'm not the kind of person who is going to say that I'm going to win something because of it, but I want to do as well as I can"...if last season is any indication of his talent, Bean has a bright future ahead of him...in his first full season on the World Cup tour, the 20 year-old native from Canada's capital immediately showed that he belonged, finishing first at Kirchberg, Austria and third in Tignes, France...both events followed last year's World Championships in Nagano, an Events for which he could not even qualify on the strong Canadian team..."Without a doubt, Kirchberg was my best moment," says Bean. "I really wasn't disappointed not to make Worlds because I didn't deserve to be there. But I had already told my coaches that whether I make it or not, I was going there (to Nagano). I bought my own plane ticket and went, and it was one of the smartest things I've ever done"...going to the World Championships, albeit as a spectator, did two things for Bean: one, it motivated him for later events and two, it helped him in his preparation for the Olympics -- his ultimate goal..."Seeing Nicolas, Andy, and David at Worlds (teammates Nicolas Fontaine, Andy Capicik, and David Belhumeur, who finished first, third, and fourth respectively), it made me think, ‘I've got to show it now.' And now that I've been there, knowing an air site makes it a lot easier to visualize. If the weather's good, it'll be another great competition," says Bean of the Olympic aerials Events...despite the fierce competition within the team just to earn a spot for the Olympics, Bean relishes the situation..."I like it," he says simply when asked about the intrasquad competition. "I really wouldn't want it any other way. When I'm training with guys who've been there I can ask them how they got there. Then when I see a Nick Fontaine in practice I say, ‘That's the guy I've got to beat.' Not in a bad way but just to give myself a standard"...on the Canadian team there are potential sources for division -- linguistic, geographic - as most of the Anglophones train at Whistler while the Francophones live together at Lake Placid...but Bean contends that team camaraderie does not suffer..."It's very surprising and a lot of people don't believe me when I say it," Bean says. "It is a team and there are no real separation lines. It's a tribute to the personalities on the team and the fact that nobody has a real big head"...Bean, who has been skiing every weekend since he was four, was introduced to freestyle by his older brother Dave, who is currently coaching moguls skiing and studying geography at the University of Ottawa..."He was older and cool," says Jeff, "and I was young and impressionable"...according to Jeff, his brother started freestyle because "he just kind of got bored of racing"...both Bean brothers started doing all three freestyle disciplines but Dave Eventsually specialized in moguls -- "he did aerials for a few years but realized it wasn't his cup of tea," says Jeff...the younger Bean did some gymnastics and judo when before getting into aerials..."Freestyle is usually a second sport for most," he explains. "It's people who like skiing and acrobatics who get into it"...he trained with the national developmental team at Lake Placid until the summer of 1996, when he began using the new water facility at Whistler...he cites the influence of Nick Bass, the Canadian national developmental team coach, who was hired before the ‘94-'95 season, as crucial in his own development..."We never had really had a full-time coach before that," says Bean, "so just having someone there to push you and keep everything running really helped me a lot"...Bean's father works for Cognos, the world's leading supplier of business intelligence software...his father, brother, and girlfriend purchased their plane tickets to Nagano more than four months in advance of the Olympics, but Bean will not allow that to make him feel more pressure -- "I know that they just did it because they couldn't get seats when we'd find out for sure (about qualification). Besides, they bought cancellation insurance"...Bean, who just finished high school last year, enjoys mountain biking in his free time...he also likes hockey and follows his hometown Ottawa Senators...