Since winning Olympic gold, David Wise talked real estate with President Barack Obama, represented his hometown of Reno at conventions and, with wife Alexandra, welcomed his second child, Malachi.
Wise, the first Olympic ski halfpipe champion, toted that one-pound, two-ounce medal in his pocket for much of the past nine months.
Wise twice flew to Washington, D.C., to promote Reno at the American Society of Association Executives Springtime Expo. And for the U.S. Olympic team White House visit April 3. Wise briefly met President Obama.
“I told [Obama] he had a nice house,” Wise said. “He told me it was just a lease.”
Wise hasn’t competed since the Olympics, but he stayed busy. Time demands came from the usual gold medalist appearances, and also the unusual, such as in Cannes, France, with World Cup winning soccer player Marcel Desailly.
Plus, daddy duties.
Wise’s daughter, Nayeli, was born three months before he won the first of his three straight X Games titles in January 2012. His son, Malachi, was born two months ago.
Malachi is the last book of the Old Testament and a prophet whose name means messenger of God. Wise, a leader at his church, said he would have used the third syllable from Malachi to name his first child had it been a boy. He and Alexandra decided on Malachi as an expansion of that.
Wise said it’s been a grind raising two children, but “it provides some stability.”
He won’t go completely cold into training for his first event in 10 months — a U.S. Grand Prix in Copper Mountain, Colo., the first week of December. He spent two weeks skiing in Whistler, British Columbia, in the summer.
“Essentially, you win an Olympic medal, and all of a sudden, everybody wants to be your friend,” Wise said. “I kind of see through that. Everybody’s pulling you in a million different directions. You end up having to say no to more things than you would expect to say no to.”
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