From the slopes to your couch, social media has impacted just about everyone and everything on this planet. Your small local cafe now has more Instagram followers than you, that influencer you love just launched another clothing brand, and that one “underground” skier who throws double corks like nobody's business is also a social media creator now. While social media has many flaws, there are some positives. One of those is that it has made ski culture and education more accessible to people worldwide. So now, instead of just a kid in Colorado having a favorite skier, maybe a kid in Florida does too.Â
Many pro skiers are using social media to build their profiles, whether through brand deals, movies or just sharing the awesome life of a pro skier. This works in reverse as well: social media serves as a pipeline for talented skiers to gain visibility and sponsorship, leading them to become professional athletes.Â
Enough talking, though. Who are some of these “influencer” athletes that are dominating social media right now? Â
Alex Hall and Hunter HessÂ
The two freestyle professionals, Alex Hall and Hunter Hess, are considered among the most famous in this new era of freestyle skiing. Even if you don’t ski, I am sure you’ve seen their faces somewhere online, as they are both Olympic and X Games medalists, among many other achievements. The two didn’t achieve fame through social media, but later began using platforms like YouTube to build their brand together. Hall and Hess are both on the U.S. freestyle team and have known each other for years, but didn’t start sharing their friendship with the world until 2019, when they created Magma. This project started out as an unfunded ski film, where Hall and Hess paid Owen Dahlberg, their filmer, out of pocket. Overnight, the film became a success, and Hall and Hess created their own little cult following in the ski world. The films mainly consist of candid moments, with Dahlberg following the two around and capturing street-style ski tricks and their crazy lives as professional ski athletes. Even though the two are professional athletes and sponsored by brands like Moncler and Völkl, they aren’t afraid to rough it and are seen sleeping in cars, then switching to luxury hotels in their videos, which adds a sense of paradoxical humor for viewers, and of course, the two are pretty funny together. The two recently released a movie, "TKO", which aired in 2025 and follows them on many of their street-skiing adventures. Magma has also become a bi-weekly series where the two post YouTube videos of their travels and competitions every Monday during the ski season, when they have time in their busy schedules.Â
Madison Rose-OstergrenÂ
Madison Rose-Ostergren started her professional skiing career as a D-1 alpine skier for Westminster College in Utah. She then started creating a name for herself as “Daddy” on social platforms like Instagram, where she creates Reels. Since her time out West, Ostergren has fallen in love with backcountry skiing and mountaineering, and many of her videos show her crazy adventures scaling mountains with skis strapped to her back, then ripping down in deep pow. She also posts workout content showing her skiing workout routines, as well as some good old meme videos. Throughout Ostergren’s content, she proves that even as a 5’6” girl, women can still be “daddies” in their own right. As her following grew, so did her recognition in the professional ski community. Volkl soon noticed her, and she is now a Volkl-sponsored athlete who often reps the Volkl Secret. While she isn’t scaling the side of a sick chute on the Tetons, she has been enjoying the sport of skijoring at lower elevations lately.Â
Candide Thovex
While this skier has made a name for himself through his level of skiing and performance at competitions that have long outlasted most others, his films and YouTube videos are the jaw-droppers of his career. Candide Thovex, aka THE GOAT, is from the French Alps, in the town of Annecy, where he skied the local mountains and still does today. Thovex brings a perspective to skiing that few professional athletes or people have ever had. If you have ever watched his series “One of Those Days,” then you know what I am talking about. The series is a GoPro video series of himself skiing down mountains or through resorts, navigating crazy obstacles, and even skiing onto and out of gondolas. One of his videos ends with him skimming over a pond, then grabbing a rope from a helicopter and flying away. Talk about ULTIMATE skiing. But, he doesn’t stop there. Thovex has made a YouTube movie called “Ski The World,” where he literally skis around the world, whether there is snow or not. It is safe to say that Thovex has proven himself as a GOAT skier, no matter the terrain. Thovex has gained a following of 1.3 million on Instagram and 570k on YouTube, with most of his videos reaching well over a million views. Through building his brand, he has also created his own ski line, Candide Skis, which are playful freeride skis.Â
Eileen Gu
From being named to Forbes China's 30 Under 30 to becoming the first woman to land a double cork 1440, Eileen Gu has built a name for herself in the skiing and modeling industries. Many in the ski industry call her a “triple threat,” a competitive, medal-winning athlete in halfpipe, big air and slopestyle. Not to mention, she is also smart, as she is an enrolled student at Stanford University while being a full-time professional skier. She was born in San Francisco, California, to her Chinese mother and American father. She originally represented the U.S. in the Olympics, but later in 2019 switched to representing the People’s Republic of China as she is passionate and proud of her multicultural upbringing. She is also fully fluent in both Mandarin and English. There is no question why people are influenced by her, especially young women athletes. While she is not a social media influencer, she is in the social media spotlight as an IMG-signed model. Her successful ski career led to an invitation to Paris Fashion Week at age 15, launching her in the industry. Since then, she has modeled for magazines such as Vogue and Sports Illustrated, as well as for many prestigious brands.
