Women across the nation are currently pining over 19-year-old Olympic bronze medalist Nick Goepper, but one Kent State student might have caught his eye.

On Feb. 14, the Olympic skier tweeted from his personal Twitter account (@NickGoepper): “Single ladies! Go on a dream date with me after the Olympics!” accompanied by a picture explaining that the girl with the most creative social media post hash tagged with “#IWantToDateNick” would get flown out to a city of Goepper’s choice and receive a date with the Olympian. Goepper and Us Weekly is hosting the contest.  

Senior zoology major Annie Rogers found out about the contest through a friend from a class, where, coincidentally, they had been talking about Goepper the previous day.

“I’m not going to lie, I had absolutely no idea who [Goepper] was until his first appearance on Letterman, which was a couple weeks before the Olympics. I caught the interview after it had started so I didn’t see the introduction of him or anything, but I stopped because, obviously he’s a good-looking kid … and then weeks later, I found out about the contest,” Rogers said.

Rogers admits she was initially hesitant about participating in the contest because she wouldn’t usually participate in something like this. As she stated in her video entry, she made a Twitter specifically for the contest.

“I figured why not [do it] because if I didn’t win, everyone would forget about it in a week and if I did win it would be really cool,” Rogers said.

Because Goepper and Us Weekly didn’t place any limitations on the types of entries that could be submitted, Rogers decided to go with what she knew best: singing.

The 21-year-old was raised in a household with a father who sings, plays guitar, keyboard and saxophone. Rogers began participating in musical theatre around the age of seven and continued to participate in musical theatre throughout high school and somewhat in college.

Although she says her dad would have been more than willing to teach her how to play guitar, Rogers did not start playing until her senior year of high school and taught herself.

When it came to picking a song, Rogers wanted to stand out. Prior to her submission, Goepper had tweeted about wanting Taylor Swift to be his Valentine, so she figured a ton of girls would rush to perform Taylor Swift songs. She decided to remix “I’m Yours” by Jason Mraz because, “it’s just a song that everyone knows and I’ve loved that song since it came out. It really just suits the laid-back vibe I wanted to put off,” Rogers said.

After she was informed about the contest, Rogers began to rewrite the song in her head on her way home. She went through the cords on her guitar and later that night recorded her entry video. All in all, the process took her less than an hour.

Rogers’ video was featured on an NBC.com interview with the Olympian and NBC analyst Jeremy Bloom. Goepper had a positive reaction to her video, saying, “That one won me over. That’s top-notch.” He also tweeted a link to her video on Feb. 16, saying “The talent is pouring in. Annie Rogers with a @jasonmraz cover. This one is heartfelt.” The tweet has received more than 400 favorites and 50 retweets.

When Rogers discovered that Goepper had not only seen her video but had a positive reaction to it, she was ecstatic.

“That was nuts, I did not expect that at all…it comes back to my video at multiple points in the interview… and seeing his reaction was cute because he definitely seemed to like it… I was super stoked,” Rogers said.

Although Rogers knows that the winner will be released sometime soon, an official date has not been announced.

“I would definitely tell him to pick me,” Rogers said. “I think that it would be nice for him to spend time with someone he can just let his guard down and relax with, and I really think that we would have an awesome date.”

Contact Erin Zaranec at [email protected].