With a mother from the Midwest and a father from Norway, Eliassen grew up speaking both English and Norwegian. At the age of two she found the excitement of her life in skiing, and once she took to freeskiing she didn’t looked back. Since her debut, Eliassen has won the U.S. Open four times as well as captured two gold, two silver and two bronze medals at the Winter X Games. She is the only female skier to have medaled in both the first halfpipe and slopestyle X Games events.

From the fall of 2008 to the spring of 2010, Eliassen teamed up with Red Bull to complete an ambitious film project entitled “Say My Name." In April 2010, mid-project, she achieved the Hip Jump World Record. Reaching speeds of 60 miles per hour, she hit the custom 30-foot “hip” feature and soared more than 31 feet in the air. No other woman has come close to reaching that height on skis.

Suffering a knee injury in early 2012, she spent the season rehabbing, getting strong and looking forward to the next competition season.

After taking good care of her knee through extensive rehab and cross training, Eliassen was ready to take to the snow again. She was able to take home bronze at FIS World Championships in Voss, Norway, like she did in 2005, except this time she did it in her chosen discipline of slopestyle. With an impressive bag of tricks, it’s safe to say Eliassen is back and looking for action.

GRETE SAYS
This year was all about getting back on my skis and being comfortable again after my injury. I felt like I did more than just get comfortable. I won the bronze medal at World Champs in Voss, Norway, where my mom’s family is from. My body is stronger than ever. I can’t wait for next year and all the years after that. 

FIRST TRACKS
For the first five years of her life, Eliassen lived in Minnesota, skiing some of North America’s finest mountains. After a one-year stint living in a small town in Norway, she and her family moved back to the shores of Lake Superior and became involved in several different sports: hockey, soccer, basketball, tennis, water-skiing and little-league baseball, as well as cross country and alpine skiing.

At 13, her family moved back to Norway—this time, to Lillehammer. Having already begun her skiing career in Minnesota, she decided to continue it in Norway. After only a year, Eliassen was named the Norwegian slalom National Champion and joined the Norwegian Ski Team. She then won the super G at Junior Worlds in France and placed third in slalom at the European Junior Olympics in Slovenia. After a few more years of competition, she realized that alpine racing was not her type of skiing. Even though her career in racing was promising—she positioned herself at the top of her age group in nearly every event—she had a longing to be free. The world of freeskiing hasn't been the same since.

OFF THE SNOW
During the warm months, Eliassen is a business student at the University of Utah. If she has any free time away from skiing or school, you can find her on the lake waterskiing, Stereo Skiing (wake-skiing) and wakeboarding.