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"  There&amp;#039;s winning an Olympic gold medal, and then there&amp;#039;s winning the first Olympic gold medal. But for 20-year-old Maddie Bowman, this became a reality just last week when she skied a winning performance in the halfpipe, becoming the very first female Olympian to do so. Of course, Bowman and her freeski peers (including slopestyle silver-medalist Gus Kenworthy) were all too happy to embrace their sport&amp;#039;s entrance into the Olympic arena. And they weren&amp;#039;t the only ones: The North Face opted to collaborate with the skier and her teammates to create unique competition uniforms for their events specifically. Sporting the emblem &amp;quot;Bigger Than Me&amp;quot; across embroidered stars, the uniforms pay homage to those athletes in the past who worked to bring the events to this global stage. Bowman herself had a hand in designing the competition-wear, which she donned both as she negotiated the half-pipe, and moments later as she was draped in the American flag as the gold medal winner. Related: We Invited Gus Kenworthy Over for a Puppy Play Date  Bowman sat down with us to discuss the collab, going to college with 10 (!) other Olympians, and the very cool, Oscar-related detour she&amp;#039;s making before heading home for good. Your parents are skiers. How early did you start? When I was two. And then I switched over to racing when I was 13. Did you always plan on going to the Olympics? No, [since half-pipe] wasn&amp;#039;t a reality for us until two years ago. The X games and Dew Tour were the big [competitions]. It&amp;#039;s amazing that you&amp;#039;re not only part of the first group to do Olympic free ski but you&amp;#039;re the winner\u2014the gold medalist. What does that feel like? It&amp;#039;s crazy. It definitely feels\u2026gosh, I don&amp;#039;t know, it&amp;#039;s an honor. It&amp;#039;s the first time my sport&amp;#039;s been in the Olympics, so to be part of the group that shows the world what we do, and then to be the winner, is unbelievable.  What went through your mind when you walked out into the opening ceremonies? &amp;quot;Wow, this is a really big stadium.&amp;quot; It was cool to be there with the people we were with, just knowing that you would remember that for the rest of your life. When you weren&amp;#039;t skiing, what were you up to? We watched some events, we just hung out. We&amp;#039;d watch our friends get medals and then they would leave, so we just sat and waited to compete, and finally, it was our day. We spent four days down on the coast, which was great, with men&amp;#039;s figure skating and two women&amp;#039;s ice hockey games, and then we moved up to the mountain village. Since winning the gold, how has your life changed? I&amp;#039;ve gotten my picture taken a lot more! It&amp;#039;s crazy\u2014everyone is so happy and so proud. Obviously the hometown&amp;#039;s really excited. I don&amp;#039;t feel any different, but everyone else feels a little different about me, I think. It&amp;#039;s weird, and new. So what&amp;#039;s next for you? I&amp;#039;m assuming you&amp;#039;re just going to keep skiing? Yes\u2014our sport&amp;#039;s different because we&amp;#039;re not on a four-year cycle [like the Olympics]; we&amp;#039;re on yearly cycle. So, I&amp;#039;m just going to keep doing tours. I&amp;#039;m going to college at Westminister in Salt Lake City, so I&amp;#039;ll start there again in the fall. I&amp;#039;m excited to get back to college and [my] 20-year-old life. They must be pretty happy for you over there. Yes\u2014a lot of Olympians go to that college. It&amp;#039;s pretty cool. There was more than, like, 10 of us that go to that school. All of the students were really excited. Tell me about your collaboration with The North Face. Because this was the first time our sport was ever going to be in the Olympics, we really wanted to focus on showing them that we&amp;#039;re not like everyone else. We were born out of the rebellion and we have style. We try to portray it in everything we wear. Everything is so structured, and we&amp;#039;re not structured, so that was something we really thought was important. We really wanted to bring our own culture to the Olympics and not have the Olympics change us.  When are you heading back home? I don&amp;#039;t know! I&amp;#039;m going home for a day, and then I&amp;#039;m going to LA for the Vanity Fair Oscars party. Is there anyone in particular you&amp;#039;re dying to meet? Channing Tatum. Aren&amp;#039;t we all! Do you know what you&amp;#039;re wearing? Not yet, but I&amp;#039;m going with Kaitlyn Farrington, who won the snowboard halfpipe. We&amp;#039;re Olympic dates! Images: Courtesy of Getty Images and The North Face "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.elle.com/culture/news/a24412/gold-medalist-maddie-bowman-ski-olympics-interview/>