'I really like country music ... if I'm too hyped up, I like to chill out,' says the U.S. Olympic athlete.
By James Montgomery, with reporting by Sway Calloway
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Noelle Pikus-Pace
Photo: MTV News
VANCOUVER — As we've mentioned, most members of the U.S. skeleton team are pretty nuts, unafraid not only to stare death in the face but rocket toward it at 90 miles an hour. Face first. With no brakes.
And while one-half of the U.S. women's team here at the Winter Olympics outwardly embraces the sport's daredevil mystique (that would be 25-year-old firebrand Katie Uhlaender), her partner does not. The most risqué things about Noelle Pikus-Pace are probably the red and blue strips she's dyed into her hair.
"It's kind of red, blond and blue," she laughed. "We're all a little bit crazy, I guess."
But make no mistake about it, the 27-year-old Pikus-Pace is still plenty badass. Not only has she overcome a freak compound fracture of her right leg that she suffered after a rather gnarly bobsled accident, she's one of the best skeleton athletes on the planet, with a world championship and a second-place finish at the sport's World Cup in 2006-07. It's just that with her blond hair and beaming smile, she could easily be mistaken for a model (and, to be fair, she is prominently featured in Ralph Lauren's current Winter Olympics campaign).
And unlike the punky Uhlaender, Pikus-Pace's taste in training techniques tends to reflect her more demure side. Like the kind of music she pumps before hurtling herself face-first down a mountain. It's not exactly Slayer for her.
"I really like country music ... if I'm too hyped up, I like to chill out. I love Keith Urban. I love Taylor Swift. Jason Mraz," she explained. "I really like the Script. I like Mariah Carey. Lil Wayne. I go across the board. It really has to do with where I'm at before I compete."
Not to mention the fact that she's been spending her free time in the Olympic Village, challenging her fellow athletes to epic battles on the Nintendo Wii.
"It's really cool to see us all together at the athlete village," she said. "We have Wii competitions. We play skeleton and short track and all the winter Olympic sports. It's sweet."
Dominant on the Wii and Weezy-approved! But as we said, there's still plenty that's badass about her, too. In 2007, she stepped away from international competition to have her daughter, Lacee, and while childbirth is nothing to sneeze at, it's what she's done since — and who she's doing it for — that's still rather gangster (in a decidedly Pikus-Pace-esque way): One of her major sponsors is none other than Pampers.
"Pampers Cruisers with Dry-Max!" she laughed. "We have boxes, but you know, babies go through them."
MTV News is on the ground in Vancouver all week, so stay tuned for more coverage of the 2010 Winter Olympics.
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