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Their Fearlessness Inspires Us, but They Showed Us Their Fears

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Usually, you see André Höflich, a 24-year-old Olympic halfpipe snowboarder from Germany, in a sea of snow as he tears daringly down a mountain. But in a recent video interview for The Times, he sits in a dark room and speaks directly to the camera: “If we didn’t have fear,” he says, “we would all be dead by now.”

Beginning in October, Times journalists and editors traveled to training camps, trial races and rehab facilities in Switzerland, Colorado, New York and Utah to meet with three dozen athletes, most of whom qualified for the Winter Olympics in Beijing.