David Wise, an American skier who just won the gold medal in the halfpipe competition, is unusual among his sporting peers because he has a wife and a daughter.
Wise, 23, was married at age 20 to Alexandra Wise. They had a child, Nayeli, a year later.
But Wise doesn’t think of his family as any sort of hindrance to his career and instead believes that his daughter especially gives him an edge.
He won the X Games gold medal in halfpipe in 2012 and again in 2013 before winning this gold medal on February 18.
“It’s not a big coincidence that all the big events that I’ve won were after Nayeli was born,” Wise told the New York Times. “I think it’s kind of cheating, because it’s something none of my competition has.”
Alexandra Wise and Nayeli. (Facebook/David Wise)
It wasn’t always that way.
Wise proposed to Alexandra in February 2011, on her 19th birthday. He proposed at Lake Tahoe, and they were married in front of five friends at the Reno Wedding Chapel. They later went bowling and had dinner.
For years, the pair kept the marriage a secret from the skiing community.
“I was worried about what people would think,” Wise said. “Will I be blacklisted? Am I too different?”
That’s changed now, as have many things.
The former bachelor pad the family lives in has been upgraded from when Wise and friends lived there. One big change is turning on the heat in the winter.
“I’d come home sometimes and the house was so warm,” said James Furman, who lived in the room that now belongs to Nayeli. “That’s how I knew Lexi was here. It would smell nice, and it was heated.”
