The day before Jonathan Cheever flew to Argentina to open the snowboarding season, he labored at the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association’s Center of Excellence in Park City, Utah.
The job? Replacing six feet of rotted-out, garbage-disposal piping. The drain was clogged with a few days’ worth of coffee grounds.
The 32-year-old Cheever has been a snowboarder and a plumber for more than a decade.
Lately, he’s been pretty valuable to the USSA in both and, after an out-of-nowhere finish Saturday, appears headed to his first Olympics in February.
“‘[Plumbing] is still my bread and butter,” Cheever said.