Did you watch the Olympics?
If you did, the name Jaelin Kauf may ring a bell.
Jaelin is an aerial mogulist and now a three-time Olympian who competed in two events at this Winter Games in Livigno, Italy.
She walked away last week with two silver medals.
After people saw me on TV, a lot reached out with the same question:
How do you know Jaelin Kauf?
Is she a family member?
A friend?
While she’s become a bit of both, here’s the real story:
Jaelin and I started working together about five years ago when my company rebranded U.S. Ski & Snowboard. I presented the new brand at the Center of Excellence in Utah — and that’s where we met.
As my work evolved deeper into courage, I became fascinated with elite performers who are bold enough to truly go for it.
Enter Jaelin.
For someone who spends so much time in the air, my job was simple: give her tools to stay grounded.
The pressure of the Olympics is real. Jaelin knows this well — her first Games didn’t go as planned which is where our work began.
What followed was an open-minded athlete willing to do the hard inner work: journaling, writing notes to her younger self, confronting fears, defining what she wanted to stand for.
Because elite isn’t accidental. It’s intentional.
We also identified an “enemy” — not a person, but an idea she wanted to defeat:
Like.
“Like is the enemy of love.”
In her first Olympics, Jaelin told me she didn’t love her final run.
It was a run that led her to miss the medal rounds by one competitor.
4 years of training for a 30-second run that she “liked” — but didn’t love.
That’s a hard moment to sit with and stew on.
When you’re representing your country, your team, your family — and yourself — like isn’t enough.
You want to LOVE what you put down.
As the years went on, it became even more clear that “love” was Jaelin’s number one value.
“Love” would sit on the top of her core value podium alongside “Purpose” and “Grit”.
If you watched these Games, you saw all three on full display.
Our work eventually crystallized into a mantra:
Deliver The Love.
As mentioned above, Jaelin brought home two silvers from Milan. If you haven’t watched her events, they’re must-see TV.
But even if she hadn’t medaled, we’d be just as proud — because she also launched the Deliver The Love Foundation, helping girls chase their own mountains.
Which reminds me of something that my legendary Maryland soccer coach Dave “Scooter” Scaggs used to say:
Practice doesn’t make perfect. Perfect practice makes perfect.
Not because perfection is the goal — but because elite reps, mental and physical, put you in position to perform when it matters most.
Just like Jaelin did.
