Jeremy Bloom

By Mike Brohard, Loveland Herald sports editor

Growing up in a home where dreams were encouraged and limitations were not in place provided Jeremy Bloom with an environment to thrive. When his endeavors were met with skepticism, he didn’t listen. He didn’t see barriers, just stepping stones. And when he dreamed, he went big. He played as many sports as he could, many at the same time, and excelled in all of them.

Already a black belt in Karate, Bloom helped Loveland High School win state championships in football and track, all the while earning praise on the Intermountain circuit as a skiier.

When he set the goal of being an Olympian, he established his own timeline at age 11, targeting the 2002 Winter Games in Salt Lake City. He nailed it, as he did so many other targets in his life. Now, he will be inducted into the Colorado Sports Hall of Fame.

“It’s humbling. It was a big honor to be inducted into the Colorado Skiing Hall of Fame, and it was another huge honor to be inducted into the U.S. Skiing Hall of Fame,” he said. “This one is a little different. This is not skiing, it’s sports in general. If you look at skiers inducted into the Colorado Sports Hall of Fame, there’s only a handful of them.”

A two-time Olympian, Bloom was also a three-time world champion in freestyle skiing, where he made moguls a way of life. Precise in his turns, he was quick down the hill, and his jumps grew with the sport as it started to erase old barriers, allowing inverted tricks into the discipline.

After achieving his 2002 Olympic dream in Salt Lake City, he went on to win the first of his two world championships. Bloom won his two other World Cup titles in 2005, a remarkable season that saw him set a record with six consecutive World Cup event wins, a mark that stood until 2012. Overall, he won 12 World Cup events and amassed 26 podium finishes, earning his place in the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame in 2012.

In between his two Olympic Games, Bloom pursued another love — football — in a brief, two-year career at the University of Colorado. Quarterback Joel Klatt called him a big play waiting to happen, as Bloom had two long receptions and three kick returns for touchdowns before losing a battle with the NCAA to pursue both sports while earning sponsorships on the slopes.

His skiing career ended at the 2006 Turin Olympics, two days later he participated in the NFL combine and became a fifth-round pick of Philadelphia — the only Olympic skier to be drafted by an NFL team.

After injury cut short his brief NFL career, Bloom co-founded Integrate and serves as the marketing technology company’s CEO. He also founded Wish of a Lifetime in honor of his grandparents, an organization that makes dreams come true for senior citizens.