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Saying Chris Lillis is a details guy is like saying he kind of wants to win another Olympic gold medal. Lillis won gold in mixed team aerials at the 2022 Beijing Winter Games. Making a second Olympic team in his discipline of freestyle skiing is arguably more mental than physical. Tracking the details of how he eats, sleeps, trains and recovers is crucial to unlocking what does and doesn’t work for him as an athlete. The data helps shape his mindset training. The key to mental preparation is visualization.Chris says, “Visualization can just be like a kind of mental imagination, whether it’s in the first person or the third person. You really just imagine yourself doing that jump.” Aerialists are like acrobats on skis. They ski down a ramp, launch themselves in the air and complete a series of flips and twists while maintaining enough spatial awareness to land on on snow. Jumps last seconds. But Chris says the time in the air feels a lot longer than that because of how in tune he is with every small move his body makes. Just making the 2026 Olympic Team isn’t enough. “It’s different when you’ve won before because the only question anyone has for you is, are you going to win again? My answer is always the same. It’s yes,” says Chris. On this Dying to Ask: What it’s like to live your life with that much attention to detailThe move Chris had to make to follow his Olympic dream and how he spends his summersGoing from newbie to veteran. The importance of mentoring the next generation of OlympiansAnd how to master the art of visualization like an Olympic athleteOther places to listenCLICK HERE to listen on iTunesCLICK HERE to listen on StitcherCLICK HERE to listen on SpotifySee more coverage of top California stories here | Download our app | Subscribe to our morning newsletter | Find us on YouTube here and subscribe to our channel
Saying Chris Lillis is a details guy is like saying he kind of wants to win another Olympic gold medal.
Lillis won gold in mixed team aerials at the 2022 Beijing Winter Games.
Making a second Olympic team in his discipline of freestyle skiing is arguably more mental than physical.
Tracking the details of how he eats, sleeps, trains and recovers is crucial to unlocking what does and doesn’t work for him as an athlete.
The data helps shape his mindset training. The key to mental preparation is visualization.
Chris says, “Visualization can just be like a kind of mental imagination, whether it’s in the first person or the third person. You really just imagine yourself doing that jump.”
Aerialists are like acrobats on skis. They ski down a ramp, launch themselves in the air and complete a series of flips and twists while maintaining enough spatial awareness to land on on snow.
Jumps last seconds. But Chris says the time in the air feels a lot longer than that because of how in tune he is with every small move his body makes.
Just making the 2026 Olympic Team isn’t enough.
“It’s different when you’ve won before because the only question anyone has for you is, are you going to win again? My answer is always the same. It’s yes,” says Chris.
On this Dying to Ask:
- What it’s like to live your life with that much attention to detail
- The move Chris had to make to follow his Olympic dream and how he spends his summers
- Going from newbie to veteran. The importance of mentoring the next generation of Olympians
- And how to master the art of visualization like an Olympic athlete
Other places to listen
CLICK HERE to listen on iTunes
CLICK HERE to listen on Stitcher
CLICK HERE to listen on Spotify
See more coverage of top California stories here | Download our app | Subscribe to our morning newsletter | Find us on YouTube here and subscribe to our channel
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