Big air and slopestyle snowboarder Nicolas Huber is the Olympic fan the world needs. Huber, who represented Switzerland at the 2022 Winter Olympics, has been the ultimate hype man for the Swiss team.
Huber, while dressed head to toe in a Swiss flag bodysuit, posted numerous videos documenting his wild Olympic experience, never missing a chance to have fun.
While on his way to Beijing, Huber nearly “missed” his flight. He wildly careened through the airport in his red bodysuit. He even had a toast with Swiss snowboarding teammate Jonas Boesiger to celebrate making the flight and going to the Olympics.
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Huber’s Olympic dream came to a halt soon after his arrival. Within the first two days after he arrived, Huber tested positive for COVID-19. He was taken away in an ambulance and needed two negative tests before he could leave isolation.
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His trip to the Games was relatively tame, so Huber couldn’t spend his quarantine time just sitting around. Instead, he had solo dance parties, whipping out a hazmat suit and goggles before making a grand entrance in a tiger onesie. He even brought a giant Swiss flag to wave in his videos.
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A few days and dance parties later, Huber tested negative for COVID-19 and was cleared to compete in the men's snowboard slopestyle qualification. His ever present red suit didn’t give him any luck, though. Huber placed 20th after falling during both qualification runs.
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He didn’t let the result bother him. Huber was off to celebrate the Lunar New Year in his tiger costume. Huber can be seen with full tiger makeup, waiting along trees before jumping onto a snowy pathway to attack a snowboarder. He later runs away triumphant, the rider's snowboard in hand.
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During practice for the men’s snowboard big air qualification, Huber enlisted Boesiger to go humanboarding down the big air jump after taking inspiration from Norwegian snowboarder Staale Sandbech, who humanboarded atop Canadian snowboarder Tyler Nicholson on the big air jump at the 2018 Winter Olympics.
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Before the big air event, Huber cheered on Swiss teammate Jan Scherrer at the men’s snowboard halfpipe final. Scherrer took home a bronze medal, prompting Huber to celebrate the rest of the day. In Huber’s Instagram story that day, he posted a video of himself running after a vehicle while waving the Swiss flag behind him.
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Huber returned to Big Air Shougang for more training. He flipped against a wall lining the landing area and posed against a graphic of the Olympic rings. Huber later placed 14th in big air.
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He rounded out his Olympics experience by cheering on the Swiss hockey team, sticking his body outside of a moving bus and hanging from overhead support rails inside buses.
Huber has since left the Olympics, but not before getting some pre-flight exercise by punching the air while hanging upside down in the bus, hugging Chinese volunteers and pulling off one last feat: parkouring through the airport, as seen on his latest Instagram story. His final video depicts him in a crouched position before ripping off the face portion of his bodysuit like Spider-Man.
Huber pulled off so many stunts and wore his bodysuit so often that the Swiss cross began to rub off of the suit. His enthusiasm and cheering paid off, though. Scherrer won Switzerland one of its 10 medals at these Olympics.
