Grete Eliassen
Champion Skier, Women’s Sports Advocate, Podcaster and Speaker
Grete is 6 time X Games Medalist, 4 time US Open Freeskiing Champion, 2 time Powder Magazine’s Female Performance of the Year, ESPN’s Best Female In Action Sports, Red Bull Cold Rush Champion, World Record Holder, Fri Flyt’s Magazine’s Skier of the Decade and F.I.S. World Championship 2 time Bronze Medalist.
She has appeared in numerous ski movie films over her ski career including: “X” Poorboyz Productions, “Mind The Gap” Skifilm.no, “Yeah! Dude” Poorboyz Productions, “Ski Porn” Poorboyz Productions, “Children of Winter” Warren Miller, “ColdAsIce. Web Series” ColdAsIce.TV, “Say My Name” Stan Evans Productions, “One For The Road” Teton Gravity Research, “Broken Record” Chaoz Productions, “Nine Queens Winning Team Video” Nine Queens, “Here, There & Everywhere” Warren Miller.
Grete was awarded the “Yolanda L. Jackson Give Back Award” from the Women’s Sports Foundation in 2009 presented by Yolanda L. Jackson and Billie Jean King in recognition for her generous support to the Women’s Sports Foundation throughout the years and for demonstrating, by being a role model, the true meaning of giving back. After winning this award it became clear to Grete her work as an advocate for women in sports would go beyond skiing. She quickly became even more involved with the Women’s Sports Foundation’s efforts by joining the Athlete Advisory Panel, Board of Trustees then served as President of the Foundation from 2017-2018. She lobbied at Capitol Hill, organized athletes, spoke up on inequalities within sports to media and taught/coached young female athletes who are just learning about the importance and love for sport.
Born to an American mother and a Norwegian father, Grete grew up in between Lutsen, Minnesota and Lillehammer, Norway. Grete quickly found the love of skiing at age 3 when her parents brought her to the local ski hill’s rope tow for the first time. She began ski racing at the age of 10 and became a Norwegian National Champion at the age of 14. She competed on the Norwegian Ski Team for two years until she realized her love for skiing was not skiing around gates, but the freedom she found while going off jumps, skiing off cliffs and finding her own line down the mountain. Grete quickly gained sponsors at the age of 16 and won her first international competition in Saas Fee, Switzerland. She won the Overall Title for Slopestyle, Halfipipe and Big air. A couple months later she would be crowned the Slopestyle Champion of the US Freeskiing Open in Vail, CO. A year later she would win back-to-back titles at the X Games in Aspen, CO.
Grete quickly understood the injustices that were given to her and her fellow female competitors. They would have to lobby to be included in freeskiing events, ski in demos years before they were actually awarded a medal or even prize money to prove that women could ski in the halfpipe and go off jumps. Not to be included in ski movie productions simply because the quota of a “token female skier” was full. And if they were included they would only be allowed 30-90 seconds of skiing in the film. Skiing magazines did not print ski shots of women and X Games never even played her event on live television.
These experiences would light a fire in Grete and every time she was given the chance to speak out about it, she would. This would label her “Outspoken” by Powder Magazine and “Advocating For Change” by Freeskier Magazine. All labels she stands confidently with.
In correlation with Grete’s ski career she attended the David. Eccles School of Business at the University of Utah and earned a B.S. in Marketing. She interned at the Utah Governor’s Office of Economic Development, was the Director of Marketing at Wickr Inc. and helped create the WickrX Super Sessions (Mavericks Inaugural Women’s Big Wave Surf Contest).
Currently Grete is the host of “What’s Your Line? With Grete” Podcast and travels as a Keynote Speaker. She resides in Salt Lake City, UT with her husband and two children.