Athlete profile: Mike Jacoby

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

Athlete notes

The silver medalist in the last two World Championships, Jacoby is not your typical snowboarder...he does not fit in the stereotyped snowboarder mold, a young man with pierced nose, dyed hair, and tattoos..."A snowboarder is an individual," says Jacoby. "There is no stereotype in my eyes. What's right for one person isn't right for another. I'm myself. If I felt like dying my hair or piercing my nose or getting bunch of tattoos, I would. I don't think I will, though"...his appearance might not lead others to recognize him as a extreme sports star, but he downright lives that genre...during the summer, Jacoby is one of many winter athletes who enjoy cross-training...he flies his beloved '63 Cherokee Piper to the Oregon coast where he loves to surf, or to the Columbia River Gorge where he participates in a plethora of activities...Hood River, where he lives, has gained a reputation for attracting extreme sports enthusiasts...yet Jacoby's fanatic workouts in the mother nature stand out..."People around here are into every new sports there is," says Kimberly Quirk, a former neighbor of Jacoby's. "But you would see Mike riding his bike out to a little dirt runway where he kept his airplane. He would fill it up with all his gear -- his surfboard, his skates, even his bike -- and take off to go work out. Even in a place like this, people noticed"...other than dirt biking, Jacoby is a rock-climber, a kayaker, and ultimately, a sky diver...maybe the Gorge has a therapeutic effect on this snowboarding champion..."Every time I leave here, I miss it so much," Jacoby says. "And every time I come back, I'm reminded again that it's one of the most beautiful places on earth. I do just about everything, and this place has it all"...Jacoby also believes his activities have had a direct effect on his snowboarding success..."I actually work really hard in the summer, but I try to make my workouts like play," he says. "I try to do as many things outdoors as I can. I try to do other sports that do the same thing as an indoor workout. Rather than run on a track, I go for a jog in the forest. Rather than lift weights, I'll go kayaking and get my workout paddling. Basically, my summer is spent trying to get sick of the summer, so that when winter comes, I'm ready"...his love of the nature came early...Jacoby's father Marshall is an outdoor enthusiast and led his children to cross-country skiing, rock climbing, and skating ...Mike's older brother Eric is now a hang glider, and younger sister Adeena is a snowboarding instructor..."Mike was a very independent, innovative kid," Marshall recollects. "Whenever he sees something of interest, he must try. He would just make his own gears"...Marshall is proud of what Mike became to be, "a leader on the US team, a champion," and credits himself for giving the directions to the outdoors..."But not sky diving," laughs Marshall. "That did not come from me. His skydiving makes my wife [Patt] and I nervous"...but Jacoby says sky diving is what prepares him best for a competition of Olympic caliber..."Mentally, it has a lot of benefits," Jacoby says. "It brings you such a high dose of adrenaline when you jump out of a plane. At first, you don't even remember what happened. After a while, your body adjusts and you learn to control the high"...the Olympics have been in his mind since 1987, when Jacoby won the US Jr. Championships...as an 18-year-old, Jacoby started to race on the International Snowboarding Federation (ISF) circuit as a professional, but when he first heard the news of snowboarding becoming a medal sport in Nagano, and the ISF was not going to be the ruling body for the Olympic snowboarding, Jacoby converted to the International Ski Federation (FIS)..."I knew that there was going to be a day when snowboarding would be a part of the Olympics, and I didn't hesitate when it happened," remembers Jacoby. "I just had to make sure that I will be in for the Olympics"...thus, he is an original member of the US Snowboarding Team...Jacoby competes not only in giant slalom, but in all other disciplines of snowboarding, including half pipe...but now Jacoby finds himself concentrating more on giant slalom...and concentration is one of Jacoby's biggest assets...when Jacoby was five, an ear infection left him with a 60 percent hearing loss..."If your hearing isn't great, you have to focus on what you're doing," Jacoby says. "And I think for anyone, when you're focused, you don't get distracted"...US snowboarding coach Peter Foley says Jacoby is a threat to win the Olympics with his experience and consistency..."He's more consistent than anyone in the world, and he's got a great history of doing well at the big events," Foley says...once Jacoby reaches the starting gate at Mt. Yakebitai in Shiga Kogen, all he has to do is what his father told him -- "Just go as fast as possible"...