PARK CITY, Utah — It was just the top of a mountain, but to Laís Souza, poised on her skis a little more than a year ago at the start of the breathtaking run known as Double Jack, it felt like the most thrilling place on earth.
At 25, Souza was one of Brazil’s best gymnasts, a tiny two-time Olympian, and she had just heard exciting news: She had qualified for yet another Olympics. But this was the 2014 Winter Games, something completely new, and it gave her accomplishment an added resonance. In less than a week, Souza would be traveling to Sochi, Russia, to compete in aerial skiing, a sport she had never even heard of before taking it up seven months earlier.