THE FRONT ROW WITH BRUCE BOURQUIN: Jan. 24, 2014

Viewers of this year's XXII Olympic Winter Games in Sochi, Russia, beginning on Feb. 6 and continuing through Feb. 23, will have the opportunity to listen to a broadcaster who is originally from this area. Just log on to YouTube.com, type in the name Luke Van Valin and check out the seven-year veteran's broadcasting skills.

VAN VALIN, who was born in Hayden, grew up in Athol and played three years of varsity soccer before graduating from Lakeland High in 2002, will work as a color analyst for NBC. A former skier, Van Valin will be the color analyst for freeskiing, which features slopestyle and superpipe, which are two new events in the Winter Olympics.

In fact, he will be celebrating his 30th birthday in Sochi on Feb. 7, the day of the opening ceremonies. There will be a few events starting on Feb. 6. Van Valin leaves Wednesday for Sochi, located on the Black Sea coast near the border between Russia and the country of Georgia.

According to NBCOlympics.com, the women's slopestyle final will be broadcast at 4 p.m. on Feb. 10. The men's slopestyle final will be at 4:30 p.m. on Feb. 12. The men's superpipe finals will be at 9:30 p.m. on Feb. 18 and the women's superpipe finals will be at 9:30 p.m. on Feb. 20.

"It's a profound honor to be doing this and to be the first," Van Valin said. "There's a little bit of pressure involved. This is a really new sport and NBC is really looking to support it in its youth and help it to grow. A lot of responsibility to help first-time viewers understand what's going on when, for me, for the majority of my career broadcasting to people who are already informed on the sport ... bridging that gap is a balance. I'm super excited, I'm so pumped up about it. It's such a lifetime opportunity and to think I signed that contract (to work for NBC) in front of 50 million people talking about the sport that I love is so exciting to me."

The 30-year-old Van Valin, who now lives in Denver, will work with commentator Matt Vasgersian, who works for the MLB Network but will join NBC for the Olympics. The pair will face the challenge of explaining the two sports so the average viewer can understand what is going on, yet be able to describe the sport with enough technical information to please the fans of freeskiing who follow the sport on events like the X Games on ESPN, which he has worked as a broadcaster in places like Aspen, Colo., and Tignes, France.

VAN VALIN was hired by NBC to broadcast the Olympic events after working for seven years as a broadcaster.

"I got it because I've been working with NBC in the Dew Tour since 2009," Van Valin said. "They decided to use me as their freeskiing correspondent over there. I just found out in November. They almost used a former mogul skier and Olympic gold medalist Johnny Moseley. He was going to be there announcing moguls. But my producer at NBC, Billy Matthews, he got into a meeting with a lot of the suits (executives) at NBC and told them that it's very different with freeskiing with all of the intricacies that it's very different from moguls. So he thought that it'd be appropriate to bring in someone who's freeskiing-specific. And that's how I got the job, which I'm very happy about it."

VAN VALIN, who is nicknamed "The Voice of Freeskiing", got his big break in January of 2006. As a 21-year-old, he literally went straight from being an athlete to announcing a live - albeit not televised - event.

"I was in Vail, Colo., competing at the Nature Valley U.S. Freeskiing Open," Van Valin said. "I didn't make it to the final in big air and one of the announcers was sick. So I offered to announce with one of the guys who does play-by-play (Chris Ernst). He said yes, so I did it and he told me I might have a future in it, so he was looking to do less announcing. He basically gave me the keys of the kingdom. He gave me my big break. My first year of announcing, I had 10 jobs lined up. He's my mentor and someone I have so much respect for. He made my broadcasting career a possibility."

Van Valin has been busy ever since. Van Valin has often done the play-by-play work during non-skiing events and has been the color analyst for skiing events.

"In 2006, I pretty much started announcing full-time," Van Valin said. "I've always been a sole proprietor and companies have hired me out. I've worked for CBS, ESPN, NBC, MTV. So I've done a lot of stuff for different networks. I've also done live events where I'm talking over a large PA system in front of a large crowd. I was technically a freelancer but my schedule was so full that I was definitely a full-time announcer. I announce year-round. I usually do beach volleyball in the summer, then I might pick up a random event, like a motocross event or a BMX bike event. It can be very different from skiing, but I'll go through the networking I've done through skiing."

SLOPESTYLE SKIING is where the goal for the competitor is to perform the most difficult tricks while getting the highest amplitude off jumps, with an emphasis on performing different types of tricks instead of doing one trick repeatedly. It involves an open run, with four very large jumps 65 feet long where skiers soar 35 feet in the air. There are also rail slides, similar to hand rails, throughout the course. Athletes slide along the course, perform different tricks and fly off big boxes 50 feet long. At least five judges observe the skiers in the event. The head judge from the U.S., Josh Loubek, lived in Coeur d'Alene from 2000 to 2005 and now lives in Boise, and he helped spearhead the criteria over the past five years.

"It's judged 1 to 100, based on use of course, difficulty of trick, execution, amplitude and overall impression," Van Valin said.

Van Valin said both events could be U.S.-dominated, although competitors from other countries have a good chance at winning a medal.

Nick Goepper is a serious contender for a gold medal in slopestyle, as is Tom Wallisch, Van Valin said. On the women's side, Devon Logan is a contender for a medal, he said.

Superpipe skiing is similar to the halfpipe in snowboarding, where there is a large halfpipe that has walls more than 16 feet tall on both sides. Skiers will go back and forth, performing various tricks, jumps, spins and other various moves in the air while landing successfully. They have two runs per round.

There have been a few reasons why freeskiing events haven't already been a part of the Winter Olympics.

"We didn't have a global ranking system," Van Valin said. "They have a criterion that you have to meet in order to become an Olympic event. You have to have a global ranking system of all the athletes who are competing. For the longest time, we had a really disorganized structure of people who were going out and competing occasionally and taking on freeskiing in their spare time."

In the men's superpipe skiing competition, Van Valin said he thinks Americans David Wise, Aaron Blunck and Torin Yater-Wallace are serious contenders to win a medal. Maddie Bowman and Brita Sigourney are the women's U.S. contenders in the event.

Van Valin said he believes the sports are here to stay as an Olympic event. He said the main reason is because it attracts new youthful sponsors and viewers.

VAN VALIN first got into skiing as a child, when he was 4. His mother, Debbie, took him to Mt. Spokane. His father, Tim Van Valin, a city prosecutor in Rathdrum, did not necessarily love skiing. Debbie is a part-time paralegal and runs phone camp counseling meetings for married women.

"My mom used to take me up there because Mt. Spokane had a promotion called Five Dollar Day," Van Valin said. "She's a very wise woman. We'd rent all our gear and ski up there. It was awesome. We'd ski until the bell rang (before sundown) ... my dad never skied a day in his life. He's not interested. My mom dragged him up to Mt. Spokane one time and he sat in the lodge and watched people falling down over and over and he said, 'Yeah, I think I'll pass.'"

As a teen, Luke skied at Schweitzer Mountain Resort in Sandpoint and his mother hired Bob Legasa, a local former professional skier, to work with Luke and helped him build his foundation.

"He provided that core skiing background that I needed," Luke said. "I needed a little bit of a push. I ended up getting that when I hurt myself, I hurt a couple of bones in my back. He helped me get all that background. He's the reason why I was able to become a professional."

Of course, Tim Van Valin is very proud of his son.

"How many people get to do that?" Tim said. "It's an incredible opportunity. We were very happy that he was going to get an increase in his career. What an unbelievable chance to be on the front burner."

Debbie Van Valin and Luke's grandmother, Doris, who lives in Los Angeles, will certainly be among the viewers.

LUKE'S OLDEST brother, Nate Van Valin, is a physician's assistant in the emergency room at Valley Hospital in Spokane Valley and his older brother, Tim Van Valin, works for Black Hawk Capital Managers in Coeur d'Alene. In 1998, Tim Van Valin was a placekicker and linebacker for the Lakeland High football team.

"I have my parents to thank for that (being a skier)," Luke Van Valin said. "Both of my brothers went to college and my parents basically told me that I could pursue my freeskiing goals and my dreams of becoming a pro skier and it worked out really well."

Van Valin was married in June to the former Caitlyn Bell, a marketing manager at a stock transfer agency in Denver. The two met in Aspen, Colo., at a concert.

IF VAN Valin does a good job in Sochi, he could have an opportunity to broadcast freeskiing in the 2018 Winter Olympic Games, which will be held in PyeongChang, South Korea.

"They want to make sure I do the job well first," Van Valin said.

Here's betting Van Valin will perform just fine more than two weeks from now. There's no pressure explaining two new Olympic sports well enough to more than 50 million international viewers on NBC, right?

If anyone can pull it off though, it's the voice of freeskiing.

Bruce Bourquin is a sports writer at The Press. He can be reached at 664-8176, Ext. 2013, or via e-mail at [email protected] Follow him on Twitter @bourq25