TOP TO BOTTOM Rey searches for the bottom in the deep woods off of Revelstoke Mountain Resort, BC. Photo: Grant Gunderson Rey is always stoked to share, whether that be bad jokes or a new line in the Whistler, BC, backcountry. Photo: Ben Girardi Words Lisa Richardson STAN Rey is not afraid to cry. “That’s why I love watching sports,” he says. “They show their emotions. It’s so beautiful to see someone in tears of joy from accomplishing a lifetime goal.” He cried three days before we talked because his recovery from a fully torn ACL was slower than he’d wanted. He cried when he got married. He cried when he proposed. He cried when his wife, Kelsey Serwa, won an Olympic ski cross gold medal. Sure, he may attribute it to his 14 concussions (“I’m an emotional person because of all those brain injuries,” he jokes), but Stan has always had a big heart and been willing to ride the ups and downs. For a professional mountain athlete like Stan, that heart is a superpower and liability rolled into one. It might have kept the pro skier, former ski cross racer and big sender from his own Olympic medal, but it helped him win him a lot more— love, friends, fans, longevity. Stan is proof that nice guys don’t have to finish last, that a willingness to cry is not an impediment, that sometimes the cream rises to the top simply because it’s creamier, not because it ruthlessly beat everyone else down. Stan’s competitive energy is generative rather than destructive, a refresh on an elite-level sport that doesn’t always skew that way. It might be why Stan ended up on top of the mountain instead of the podium. Stan Rey 041
The Ski Journal Volume 15, Issue 2: Page 41
