Olympian Skier Erik Schlopy is Bringing Resilience to Real Estate 

Olympian Skier Erik Schlopy is Bringing Resilience to Real Estate

Here’s how Erik Schlopy takes his Olympic experience and applies it to selling homes.

When Erik Schlopy broke his back during a bad crash at the FIS Alpine World Ski Championships in 1993, this three-time Olympian probably wasn’t thinking about how the experience would eventually parlay into a successful real estate career.

But that’s exactly what happened. A Park City, Utah, resident since 1992, Schlopy’s first foray into real estate was a Steamboat Springs condo that he bought, fixed up, and sold for a profit. He went on to own townhomes, single-family homes, and land—experiences that would prove useful when he got his real estate license in 2003.

Now a REALTOR with Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage, Schlopy still skis regularly, often with his buyers and sellers. Here’s how his successful skiing career helps him be a more resilient, agile agent:

1. There are no guarantees in sports (or real estate). “When you wake up in the morning, there’s no guarantee,” says Schlopy, of his real estate career. The same rules applied in athletic competition, where he relied on sponsors, wins, and other variables to make a living year after year. "It's no deposit, no return," he says. “You get out of it what you put into it.”

2. Being an Olympian establishes early trust. As a former professional athlete, Schlopy is often asked to do corporate events, charity golf tournaments, and speaking engagements. These efforts often turn into great real estate networking opportunities for Schlopy. “Because I come in as an Olympian, it creates trust right away,” he explains. “People know that I wouldn't have achieved what I did on the ski slopes if I wasn't a hard worker.”

3. Pick yourself up, brush yourself off, and try again. The crash in Japan was life-changing for Schlopy, who was on a downhill training run when it happened. “I was young and lacking experience, and I shot into the air at 70mph,” says Schlopy. “I landed on my butt and compressed six vertebrae, displaced my sternum, broke several ribs, punctured my lung, and bit my tongue almost all the way off.” One year later, Schlopy qualified for the 1994 Olympics. Enough said?

Schlopy loves showing clients a good time in Park City, be it skiing, golfing, mountain biking, or some other activity of interest. “We work to sell the lifestyle just as much as we do the real estate,” he says. “That’s something you have to get out there and do. There's no app or computer program that can take your client skiing and share the lifestyle with them. That will never be replaced.”