Cle Elum's Patrick Deneen rockets to prominence

All systems are go for the guy they call "The Rocket."

Cle Elum's Patrick Deneen, the defending world champion in freestyle moguls skiing, has had a year that others can only dream of.

Deneen grew up and still lives on a horse-and-hay farm with his folks, grandmother, two sisters and four border collies in Cle Elum.

Except for his dad and coach, Pat, who has been along for this Olympic adventure, the Deneens haven't seen much of Patrick since summer. But the news from the road has been good.

"As far as myself goes this year, every goal I've set I've just nailed even beyond my expectations," said Deneen, 22. "I'm pretty happy about where I'm at and I think I'm going to be primed and ready to go for the Olympics."

He hasn't dominated the international circuit, but he knows how to win at opportune times.

One of them was December's Olympic Trials, where a berth was all but guaranteed to the winner. Deneen won.

Another was last spring's World Championships. Deneen had never even won a World Cup event, but took gold at worlds in Japan.

Plus, he has managed to avoid the blown knees that have ruined the Olympic dreams of at least two teammates, including national champion Sho Kashima the month before the Games.

Jean-Luc Brassard of Canada, the 1994 Olympic moguls champion, nicknamed Deneen "The Rocket" because he skis faster than just about anyone else down a moguls run, his jackhammering knees a blur. Speed accounts for 25 percent of the score, jumps are 25 percent and turns 50 percent.

Deneen is all about acceleration. His mom, Nancy, said he was walking at 9 months. His dad, then the manager of Hyak Ski Area on Snoqualmie Pass, stuffed newspaper in his ski boots to get him skiing at 11 months.

Deneen divided his time between competitive horseback riding and competitive skiing until age 15, when he picked skiing. A year later, he made the U.S. Ski Team.

"He's definitely a rarity at this point," said Scott Rawles, U.S. moguls coach. "There are not a lot of large freestyle skiing programs up there" in the Pacific Northwest.

If he manages to win a medal at Cypress Mountain, the Olympic freestyle venue just four hours from his family's front door, he'll be the fourth straight American medalist in men's moguls, following Jonny Moseley (1998 gold), Travis Mayer (2002 silver) and Toby Dawson (2006 bronze). He placed fourth in the World Cup at Cypress during last season's Olympic test event.

Deneen briefly hired Moseley's coach, Cooper Schell, this summer and spent a month in Australia, mostly working on turns. Schell wanted Deneen's technique better to get even faster. It worked.

"I'm skiing better than I've ever skied before," said Deneen, whose rocket-like ascension produced three World Cup medals in 2008 and World Cup Rookie of the Year honors.

"Everyone on the circuit knew it was a matter of time before everything clicked," said Pat.

Being home-schooled allowed Patrick to ski almost 200 days a year, including winters at Idaho's Silver Mountain. They chased snow in summer and fall, too. Pat, Patrick and his sister Amy would camp in the family's Suburban in the Mount Hood parking lot and ski the Palmer snowfield in summer. In the fall, it was Utah or Colorado's Copper Mountain.

But home remains their base of operations. Last season, Pat and Patrick built a jump on a wooded hill at the end of the driveway. That's where Patrick, just a few days before last season's worlds, locked in the jump that helped him win the title.

A short walk from the front door, the family built a ground-level trampoline, with a pit beneath, for Patrick to practice his tricks.

Cle Elum isn't far from Vancouver, but Deneen doesn't expect many people to travel to watch him compete in person. A small venue and hard-to-get tickets are a problem.

"TV is going to be the best view of the event by far," Deneen said.

Plus, for the guy they call "The Rocket," TV's slow-motion replays are bound to help.