Part II in a series on 2018 Winter Olympic hopeful, Andre Moreno Hamm.

By Wendy Anders

It’s not the way most colllege students start their year in the U.S., but bi-national Andre Moreno Hamm, Costa Rica’s Winter Olympic hopeful slopestyle skier, isn’t your usual student. And right now, his studies at Westminster College in Salt Lake City, Utah are on hold while he’s in South America for a ski competition.

Having grown up in the U.S. and spent summers in rural Guanacaste, Costa Rica, Andre straddles two cultures. But when Andre decided to go for the gold, his maternal ties to Tiquicia pulled at his loyalty.

Having seen how poor, rural Ticos struggled, he wanted to make his push for the South Korea 2018 Winter Games in the name of Costa Rica.

This next year will be decisive in his ability to compete in PyeongChang, as he competes in World Cup slopestyle competitions throughout the globe to accrue the points he needs to be nominated.

His first stop: Bariloche, Argentina.

After enjoying some slope time near Santiago, Chile, Andre Moreno Hamm, is bussing (just 10 hours or so!) over to southern Argentina with the Chilean ski team who hosted him in Santiago for his first two World Cup qualifying competitions.

“I need either one first or second place finish, or two third or fourth place finishes. I am confident that I will be able to get these results and I am very excited to go ski in South America,” Andre told me in a recent e-mail.

After spending the summer doing off-season training and water ramping at the Utah Olympic Park, Andre was eager to get back into his skis to try out his new moves on snow.

His summer ended on a hopeful note with a successful fundraising event at his family’s Boulder, Colorado home. Donations received through his site, gofund.me/CRfreeskiing, will allow Andre to compete in World Cup qualifying rounds over the next few months.

And while Andre is wishing his sister a successful start to her first year at Santa Clara University, in California, we here in Costa Rica send our best wishes to Andre for a successful competition this weekend in Bariloche.