Featured Image: Matt Power | Skier: Mac Forehand
Growing up in Colorado’s Front Range, you were bound to know the name of Jeremy Bloom. His prolific career in freestyle moguls spanned 12 FIS World Cup wins, three overall World Cup titles and two Olympic runs with the U.S Freestyle Ski Team. As if that wasn’t enough, he was an All-American football star at the University of Colorado, going on to play a brief career in the NFL for both the Pittsburgh Steelers and Philadelphia Eagles.
To say he’s ambitious is the understatement of the century. But the reason Bloom is still a common name in skiing well over a decade after his retirement from moguls isn’t because of his accolades alone (though this World Cup winning run in that vintage gold C.U. helmet is legendary).
Today, most know Bloom as the CEO of X Games who’s brought the iconic circuit into a new era with several changes, including a sprouting competition league, gambling and AI judging, with the latter being the focus of his latest endeavor.
In tandem with the former Head of AI at Google Cloud, Josh Gwyther, Bloom is launching a new company, The Owl AI. With Gwyther serving as CEO and Bloom as Founder and Executive Chairman, the new company will be looking to take the innovative AI technology that first debuted at X Games 2025 and broaden its reach, likely altering how we train for, watch and compete in sports forever. With $11 million already raised, it’s fair to say Bloom has piqued the interest of many.
As the CEO of X Games, a former Olympic mogul skier and retired NFL player, Jeremy Bloom is always cooking up a new project, this time blending sports with ground-breaking tech
“I’ve always had this dream to eliminate human error from outcomes in sports, and that hasn’t been possible until recently,” Bloom told FREESKIER ahead of Owl’s official launch. “The founding idea of this technology is ‘no more judging mistakes.’ If a competitor does the best, they should win.”
Considering Bloom’s athletic history, he’s well-versed to make this complaint. He’s seen the real emotional devastation that can occur when the wrong call instantly voids years of hard work. But it’s the addition of Gwyther that makes this project possible. Professionally in the tech field for 28 years, he’s spent the last nine years at Google, with the most recent three spent leading a team of engineers at Google Cloud working on real-world applications for cutting-edge generative AI.
“I’ve been obsessed with this technology for decades, and seeing it come to market over the last few years has been very validating to say the least,” said Gwyther. “But sports have been a big part of my life as well. Football, track and field, snowboarding; these have all given me different forms of community, so this is an amazing opportunity to combine my two greatest passions.”
The two will need to continue that enthusiasm if they are to succeed, as perhaps the biggest challenge facing Owl AI isn’t programming, but people. After the debut of AI-assisted judging during last year’s X Games snowboard superpipe, mixed feedback came in from the larger community. “From Eileen Gu to Scotty James and Chloe Kim, the athletes we talked to were all excited,” Bloom exclaimed happily. “But we have to show the fans that this is beneficial.”
“A lot of people’s first reactions are mixed,” he continued. “But it’s not surprising that the younger generation, who know and use AI, are more welcoming than the older generation, who might be a bit more resistant.”
It also shouldn’t be surprising that the most common example of this mistrust in judging centers around style. Skiers will almost certainly grimace at the idea of an artificial intelligence system trying to score a Griselda Flip, but the two are aware of this. They’re meeting the task head-on, paying attention to events like X Games big air, where judging criteria include categories like Style and Originality. Bloom and Gwyther are positive that there’s a successful outcome waiting.
“If humans can understand style, there’s no reason that you can’t get an AI model to understand it as well,” said Bloom. He continued, “It’s our challenge to unpack the question of what style is for the AI, and show it what to look for.” Of course, that task is easier said than done, especially considering that style has an inherent human factor, and means something different to everyone once you leave the confines of a judging handbook.
But that human factor isn’t going anywhere. That’s because Owl is intended to be deployed alongside the judges, not in place of them. “We’re not lobbying for this technology to replace judges,” Bloom clarified. “We’re saying this technology should assist and live amongst the judges.”
17-year-old Flora Tabanelli soars towards Italy’s first female skier X Games gold last winter | Photo: Matt Power
This compelling blend of humanist and futuristic ideals has had Bloom and Gwyther looking at another application for Owl: coaching. “Once you create an AI that can judge a sport at a professional level, it can easily be transformed into a coach that can give feedback at that same level,” said Gwyther.
The idea is for Owl to assist on two fronts: Coaches can use it to enhance training and feedback for athletes, and on the flip side, athletes can utilize this technology to help themselves learn. This has the potential to be especially useful in sports like skiing, where so many potential connoisseurs of the sport are stifled because of a lack of accessible and digestible information.
This is true in rural areas in North America, and it’s equally true, if not more prevalent, in other countries. Bloom stated, “When we brainstormed this technology with athletes in Aspen, many keyed into the possibility of coaching. It was powerful hearing Eileen [Gu] key in on this, because one of her missions in skiing is to inspire young women around the world, specifically in China, and there are very few knowledgeable coaches and judges there. That alone makes entry into the sport very difficult for most, so being able to upload your training videos and get feedback all from your pocket would open doors for so many skiers.”
This idea of accessible, in-depth coaching was something that captivated both Bloom and Gwyther throughout the conversation, as they continued to discuss the benefits at length. Of course, the largest advantage from this point is that Owl isn’t being made for just the athletic elite. It’s a tool that has the potential to be used by everyone and anyone looking to progress and explore their passion.
It’s perhaps the most thrilling example of our technologically rich world melding with skiing in previously unforeseen ways. “What’s wild is that this entire company would not have been possible one year ago. That’s how fast AI is progressing,” said Gwyther with an excited smile.
The long-time Google exec has seen plenty of change in his time, but Google’s Multimodal AI, which can interpret text, code, video, audio and images, is what he’s most excited about. “Those advancements in Multimodality have happened so rapidly over the last 12 months… we can now put PhD-level intelligence behind a video stream. It’s almost hard to grasp that rate of change, but at a bare minimum, it’s incredibly exciting.”
No matter what your opinion is on the role of artificial intelligence in the world, its central position in society is becoming indisputable. The choice then becomes whether or not we will have a hand in using it for what we deem as beneficial. As freeskiers, we’re highly opinionated and subject to endless debates around many things, from conversations around X Games judging to which Sammy C project is the greatest, to how we can increase the accessibility (and affordability) of our sport.
No one is arguing to let AI decide on the next best film at iF3, but if we can pump some greater level of objectivity into competitions with the guidance of the best judges and athletes in the world, that seems like a step in the right direction.
Stay tuned this winter, as FREESKIER will bring you updates from the new X Games League and beyond