Jeremy Bloom Retired to Grant Wishes

Mogul champion Jeremy Bloom has been training non-stop to get ready for the 2010 Vancouver Olympics. So why did he suddenly announce his retirement from the U. S. team on Nov. 11, less than three months before the Olympic Games?

"It was a combination of a lot of things," Bloom told FanHouse. "Over time, the meaning and all the work of training six to eight hours a day didn't have as much purpose as it once did. Skiing still holds a very special place in my life, but my passions have shifted to other areas."

And indirectly, those passions still include the NFL. Bloom, who played wide receiver for both the Philadelphia Eagles and Pittsburgh Steelers, made history when he took on the NCAA as a college player at the University of Colorado. The organization of grumpy old white guys banned him because (get this) Bloom had to wear a U.S. freestyle team uniform in sanctioned moguls competition, and the ski team uniform had sponsor logos on it.

So Bloom left college football and went back to skiing, setting records for winning the most consecutive freestyle World Cups in a single season. At the same time, he looked toward the NFL. Two days after the closing ceremony of the 2006 Torino Olympics, Bloom was back in America, working out in the NFL Scouting Combine. He was drafted by the Eagles in the fifth round.

At the same time, another passion was beginning to burn for Bloom. He was becoming moved and motivated by the plight of many low-income senior citizens; ordinary people who had held dreams in their hearts their whole lives. "I was born into an opportunity-rich environment, but there were seniors who dreamed just as big as I did, and never had the opportunity to make their dreams come true," he said.

Bloom started a nonprofit organization, Wish of a Lifetime, to grant wishes to low-income senior citizens. It was inspired by his grandmother, who still works at the age of 82 and also volunteers 20 hours a week for foster children. She had always wanted a greenhouse. It was the first wish granted by Bloom's foundation. But the organization has a larger purpose than just granting wishes for seniors.

"When you get older and retire, you're just waiting to die [in our culture]. That's so not true. Our foundation is meant to inspire younger generations to change the way we look at our older generation, and to celebrate them," Bloom said.

Wish of a Lifetime, inspired partly by the Make a Wish Foundation, is currently only active in Bloom's home state of Colorado, but hopes to expand nationally as they grow.

Bloom also is still active in his other passion, football. In 2008, he started a free football clinic for kids 14 and under in Loveland, Co., where he grew up. "I had so much support there, and it's where I developed my dreams of going to Olympics and the NFL, so the clinic is a way for me to give back to the community and share my knowledge of football," he says.

This year's clinic coached 350 kids. Bloom was one of the coaches, and he got former teammates such as Gary Barnett and Reed Doughty to help out. If that's not enough to keep the 27-year-old busy, he's also a new college football color analyst for ESPN. His first game was in September.

In a day when pro athletes are more notorious for the bad than the good, an athlete like Jeremy Bloom shines like an inspiring light.