Last January, a Fox broadcast caught Philadelphia wide receiver A.J. Brown sitting on the sideline during the fourth quarter of the Eagles’ playoff win over Green Bay reading a book titled “Inner Excellence.” One passage the three-time All-Pro had underlined read:

“We’ve all had times when everything came together in perfect harmony: sacred moments, when we were totally immersed in the experience and felt fully alive. When these moments occur, we wish, even for a split second, we had the courage to pursue this risky path with all our heart.”

Though not written specifically to skiers, author Jim Murphy’s words perfectly encapsulate the ethos of another one of his faithful readers — River Radamus.

“I think that’s a book that’s spoken to me a lot. There’s a lot of lessons in there,” said Radamus, who carries the book with him on the road. “I’m constantly thinking of how to frame high performance and deal with setbacks and all the rest.”

Talented and gutsy when he races — yet paradoxically calm and zen-like in his introspective reflections afterwards — Radamus’ reputation certainly straddles the narrow margin between electrifying podium performances and disappointing DNFs. As local audiences are keenly aware, he’s capable of making fans feel “fully alive,” like when he ripped down the Birds of Prey course for two top-10 finishes at Beaver Creek last December. While it’s nice to have a magical moment at home, Radamus wants “everything to come together” on the biggest stage this winter. Coming off a 2022 Olympics which saw the big-event skier take two fourths and a 15th, the 27-year-old enters this quadrennial on Murphy’s “risky path” of wholehearted devotion, in pursuit of his own “sacred moment.”

“My mindset has been, win or lose, I want to know I’ve done everything I can to succeed there,” Radamus said of the upcoming Milano Cortina Games.

In line with that mission and unsatisfied with his 2024-2025 campaign, the former Ski and Snowboard Club Vail athlete tore his skiing “down to the studs” this spring.

“I was never skiing in the ‘flow state.’ I was always thinking too much about every step of the process, and that’s never a good thing,” he said. “I wanted to go back to basics and slowly build up.”

He spent time with Team USA speed skiers in Argentina before a stint in New Zealand. Then he lapped an indoor venue in Belgium with the slalom crew. All told, Radamus was on snow about 100 days over the summer and fall. The first 50 were spent without even glancing at a clock. Instead of “needing to win every run,” Radamus focused on fundamentals and “building a stronger platform.” Instead of trying to squeeze 110% out of 100%, he pulled back the reins slightly to hone his mechanics.

“What is the knee doing at the top of the turn? Where is my transition? How am I building that new turn?” the former three-time Youth Olympic Games gold medalist explained. “Whether or not it’s fast, I knew I was on the right path when I started to look at the clock and started to see the work I was doing was paying off.”

To use another football comparison, Brett Favre struggled to realize throwing the ball away is sometimes the best move. For the gunslingers on the slopes, learning to believe “under-control skiing” can get you onto the podium takes time.

“I think I sometimes let my competitive nature get the best of me,” Radamus said before clarifying further:

“There is no extra level I have to get to because I know the skiing I’m doing already is good enough.”

That’s not to say Radamus is letting off on the gas. His insatiable appetite for improvement, lust for the perfect arc and unquenchable joy for carving up turns keeps him on the training hill until the bitter end of every session.

“It’s sort of a compulsion. If I have the energy to do another run and I don’t, it sits like a pit in my stomach,” Radamus stated. “Part of what we do is, you have to be hyper competitive. You have to be hyper driven.”

Radamus can’t believe he’s already matured into the elder statesman of the U.S. tech squad. It seems like yesterday he was the young buck following Ted Ligety around. Now he’s the guy mentoring the up-and-comers struggling to bridge the gap from fast training runs to World Cup points. During the U.S. Ski Team’s media day on Nov. 19, Radamus was quick to reveal his bias by naming Bridger Gile and Isaiah Nelson as the most underrated skiers on the circuit.

“Those guys, without question — I train with them everyday — I know they have what it takes to compete on the GS tour,” he said.

And while he went back to the drawing board this off-season realizing he needed to dial back the natural competitive furnace inside his soul, Radamus still seems like the Steve Prefontaine of the U.S. Ski Team. Which is to say two things: first, being all in is all there is. Second, the fourth-place Olympic finishes sting.

“I think that’s sort of guided my last four years,” Radamus said, reflecting upon his Beijing performances. “It’s driven me to be a better athlete, a stronger athlete, more fit, more nutritionally conscious, mentally sound — to take all the right steps.”

Knowing how much work he put in, and possessing a secret sense of his new-found speed, Radamus arrived in Austria for the World Cup opener in October with understandably high expectations. Thus, he left disappointed with his 21st-place finish.

“The gap between how I know I’m able to ski and how I performed in Sölden is pretty wide,” Radamus admitted. “Last year was frustrating because I never felt like I was able to compete at the absolute top level that I wanted to. It was more frustrating in Sölden because I knew that I was. That was a setback for sure.”

Heading into the upcoming homestretch — a super-G and GS at Copper Mountain on Nov. 27-28 and four days of racing at Beaver Creek the following week — Radamus said the skiing, and his confidence in it, “remains the same.”

“It’s all about how do I allow my best skiing to come out on race day. I think that’s something I’m honing in on and I feel like I’m going in a good direction,” he said. “Especially on home snow — I feel even more comfortable here and I know my skiing works well on this type of snow.”

Perfect harmony

Murphy’s text isn’t the only one on Radamus’ shelf. A voracious reader, the Edwards-born Olympian has consumed just about every sports psychology book out there, even stuff on golf.

“I think I lot of that mentality can carry over,” he said.

A couple weeks after his viral sideline moment, Brown led the Eagles to a Super Bowl win over the vaunted Kansas City Chiefs. So, will “everything come together in perfect harmony” for Radamus in Italy?

Deep down, Radamus said he knows there’s a skier within himself capable of competing for the win. He also said he knows what it feels like “to come up just short” and “to fail altogether.” In other words, he knows better than most it really is a risky path. And he’s willing to lay it all out there.

“I know if I gave anything less than everything I have, I wouldn’t be able to live with myself,” he said. “Whether I win or lose at the Games.”

This story is from VailDaily.com.