200 km/h it is still under the helmet. The eyes are wide open, away to fix the rattling tips, the White of the slope grid below. Tempo rush on two boards. Red line, the beginning of the measurement, the red line, the end of the measurement. 217,590 km/h, the lights in the exit zone and the raging athlete on the track feels: nothing. The noise of the wind is gone, the latex suit and full-face helmet can keep him away from the body. You can imagine the speed only. You must be: very, very slowly. The way she makes a frantic motion, “schmeissts me. To a thousand percent”. Nicole Schmidhofer does not crash, it is pulverized to the speed ski world Cup in the French Vars, the Austrian record.

This week, Schmidhofer sitting one evening at the Chateau Hotel in Lake Louise. The chair is as deep as your voice, hands, pressure. 217,590 km/h so she has to do it – less than 30 km/h record were missing for the world. And at your first attempt on the skis, which are 20 inches longer, wider and heavier than their actual working devices: Schmidhofer is alpine skier by profession, Abfahrerin and as such, it was in the last Winter, as good as any other. The small ball gave it to you, 30 had to be the Steirerin, to experience the.

she was inspired, so much that they set himself the goal of cracking in the speed ski the 200-mark. “The self-confidence was as big as the stimulus,” says Schmidhofer.

The biggest challenge follows the journey

she then felt the Wind irritated them the most, “crazy weird” it was. “Or else he blows up in my face, the departure of suit allows air to, the speed I feel on the skin.” The biggest challenge came after the ride: the brakes. “Keep the Arm at 130 km/h on the highway out the window,” says Schmidhofer. “It pulls to the rear. With about 200 which is still much more violent.” Therefore, the elbows gently away from the body, slowly a light plow with the skis, a few turns “and eventually you stop getting up from the squat position”.

“A medal can happen,”Nicole Schmidhofer

Schmidhofer had only a short time, all the prepare. You did that on a test track in Andorra, in the beginning tempo: 140 km/h. Schmidhofer of a Team led by Klaus scrap hammer was taken Care of, with over 248 km/h one of the Fastest in the world. Due to bad weather she travelled with only two days of training to Vars. “Maybe we could get even more out of it. But it will arise again,” she says. “After my career.” Why? “Too dangerous.” Sponsors they had not been warned, to pay in the event of an Injury, because high-risk sport is not provided for in the treaties.

In March, she took care of everything, “I didn’t deal with it consciously, of what can happen”. As a short-time later, a speed ski athletes of 13 bones breaking, she decided to focus on her career as an alpine skier. It runs currently as good as never.

Schmid, Hofer’s path to victory in the downhill standings, was one full of trials and tribulations. What is the meaning of the ball? She looks to the ground, takes a deep breath. She says: “It is still very, very hard to put into words. Actually, it is incredible.” More important than Gold in the Super-G at the world Championships 2017 in St. Moritz. “A medal,” she says, “can happen. But for a bullet it has to work about three and a half months.”

Schmid, Hofer has shown that a career does not always run in a straight line. Has begun you are like many. Grew up next to the Piste, the parents had a ski hut in Lachtal, with two and a half she stood for the first time on skis. However, it was only nine she started to her first race. And as they looked, for the first time in the summer with the fitness training, she was already 15.

With 18 you thought you knew, is dismissed.

your current team mates were there already in one of the big sports schools in Austria, Schmid, Hofer went to the “normal” school in Murau, in the Winter you got for the race. Physically, they did not come with the opponent inside soon, “it took years to get the backlog,” she says. Nevertheless, it was an early start steeply, from Junior directly into the Speed world Cup group. To your 18. Birthday you celebrated in Lenzerheide with a ranking of 14 in the Super-G of their debut. And Schmidhofer thought: “I know the way.” Now you know: you didn’t know it.

“The slopes of Lake Louise is Rock ‘n’ Roll”Nicole Schmidhofer

they had sizes Renate Götschl and Alexandra Meissnitzer in the Team, Ski -, source of experience. However, the Council schmidhofer not repeated. You overestimated yourself. In Training she was not usually good in the race. It was a long time until they flew in the spring of 2012 out of the squad of the Association, and knew: “This is the last Chance, Nici. If you do not use the past, it is with skiing.”

she worked in the summer of 2012 with a physiotherapist, as hard as never before, came back in the Winter hardened. It was the first podium. And in the last year finally the breakthrough with victory in Lake Louise, two further triumphs, and the crystal ball.

The desire for more is awakened, the preparation with physical problems forget: otitis media and balance disorders; adductor strain; three and a half weeks of therapy due to hip pain. Everything is far away. Schmidhofer is ready. On Friday, there was rank 7 in the first downhill victory yesterday.

There was a somewhat more leisurely pace than in March, around 100 km/h slower. Boring your is not yet. “The slopes of Lake Louise is Rock ‘n’ Roll,” she says. She is also a master of this dance.

Created: 08.12.2019, 17:32 PM