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Oympic Silver Medal winner Michael Walchofer Interview with Barry Spouge Whilst we enjoyed the glorious summer, the World's top skiers were training hard for the new Audi/FIS World Cup season. Barry Spouge met up with Olymic silver medal winner Michael Walchofer during a break back in his home village of Zauchensee in Austria.
Was he ever nervous? "Not any more, it is important to be a little bit scared, you need the adrenalin, now I am at the age where you can be more cool. At the moment I know I can be really fast, especially in Super G and Downhill and that's good". I asked how big a part fitness plays these days? "At the start not so much, I worked more at home, on the farm, in the hotels and in the summer we had a load of new things I helped with. I switched to the OESV at Obertauern which was a great thing for me because I was away from home. I'd go up to Obertauern in the morning and come back each night after spending the whole day without seeing my family, but it was just for me and my training so I gained perfect fitness and my skiing was also better. Obertauern was when I really made a new start. I was 22 years, normally that is very old for an Austrian skier but now it is more normal. I remember I was in Europa Cup and training in December when the coach said to Fritz Strobl that he could start in the Val-d'Isere World Cup downhill - his first. I said he is a champion and I still ski in Europa Cup. It was a hard time for me, so I said you have to look to yourself and that my time is coming". We talked about the difference between coming 2nd in one race and then 15th in the next race, I asked is it about you and technique or as much about the equipment side? He said "It is really close sometimes, for sure it is sometimes about skis, wind conditions and sometimes it is also myself, sometimes it is a mistake. But what makes a champion is that he can ski for a whole season at a high level".
What is a typical week for you at this time of the year? "We have just spent 3 weeks in New Zealand and the important part is skiing and for fitness it is just regular action, but it is more to hold the fitness". Do you ever worry about injuries? "No I have luck, one time I crashed in Solden and broke the ribs and was not so good at that moment, I never had an operation, so that's good". Which of the disciplines do you like? He jokingly said "Slalom", but downhill is the toughest one to win? "Not for me Slalom is the toughest one to win". Do you train for Slalom? "Yes and also GS which is not so good for me, it's a big goal for me to win the Overall World Cup title so I have to ski better in GS and Slalom. This year I was fast in the training runs and also last year and in New Zealand I have done very great runs and times, so I look for more top 10 placings in GS which is important for me to win the Overall World Cup. GS is also a good part for Downhill especially the GS technique so GS training is not only important for GS but also for Downhill" he said. Race day is the day you have prepared for, how do you prepare on the actual day for a race? "I would get up around 7/8am, then we have inspection for around 1½ hours and I do just free skiing, other racers ski through gates, but for me free skiing is enough. I need the full time for inspection because it is important for me to have all things from the course in my head, to know all the bumps, for me it is important for me to feel it". Do conditions sometimes change for actual race day? "Sometimes yes, between the training day and the next day the snow is faster, so you have to perhaps take wider turns. Every nation has coaches at key places on the course and give us the best tips by radio up to the start. At inspection you stop by each coach to speak about the turn, then we have to wait to see the first racers, is it possible to go the straight line or not. After inspection our special coach Andy I speak to him about all the whole course and then I go in the restaurant and warm up my boots a little bit, that's important and change the clothes to the 'fast suit'. All the time through the morning I have the course in my head and when I sit on the lift or in the restaurant I run through it".
Do you feel the pressure at somewhere like Kitzbuhel when the crowd expect an Austrian winner? "No not any more, sometimes it is good to have pressure, I need the pressure, I ski normally fast with the pressure. You see it in results sometimes". Then we talked about the Olympics, I asked how he enjoyed them? "It was perfect sports conditions the courses were great, but all around the Olympics was not like the Olympics.
Would you encourage Hannah to become a World Cup skier? "No, its better not, for me it's at the moment the greatest job I can do". How long do you see yourself going on? "For the moment it's the next season, we'll see, for me it gets harder and harder to go away for 3 to 4 weeks and also for my children, my 2 boys, Patrick and Mathius, not so much at the moment as they are only around 1 year old but for Hannah and me and hopefully also for Barbara my wife it is not easy". Does Barbara or the children ever come to a race to see you? "No, it's different. Sometimes it would be great that she is with me but on the other side I have no time to spend with her as I have to focus on the race. It is easier when you have a smaller team to have your wife with you, but the Austrian team is so big and if I have my wife with me and the other guys have theirs as well it would be difficult". How do you all get on as team members? "We are all individuals, we train together but we have 4 training groups, we have Slalom, GS and Downhill, then WC3 and WC4 group. I am in the WC4 group with racers that ski all 4 disciplines. We have a great atmosphere in our group, this group is Hermann Maier, Bennie Raich, Mario Matt, Mario Scheiber and me, and it is the Number 1 group". What do you think when standing in the start gate? "It is important for me to look around then I take a deep breath and then it comes the right feeling for me then I just think about the course and about 30 seconds before I think about the special parts of the course and then like every racer, we have 2 or 3 special words that helps get the greater motivation". Hermann is very aggressive in the start gate? "Not any more, he goes a little bit slower". Being in the Austrian team I suppose every day is a bit like being in a competition to make sure you are still as good as you always are, as only a certain number are allowed to race. "That also makes a pressure it is just based on the competition, if it is the Olympics when only 4 can race then it is a really hard fight and can become hard words between each other or against the coaches. It is sometimes a hard fight. What would you say to youngsters today if they want to become the next Michael Walchofer? "I say to them you are young you have talent. It is important to fight and have your goal and you have to have luck." What do you do to relax, I know you like photography? "At home I relax with my family in the hotel in Summer in the Swimming pool, I also go on the bike for recreation and I think at every race I have a special mental programme, I think it is important to do something on the mental side as well as the recreational and sometime it is good to drink a good glass of wine". We are about to start a new season, how have your preparations gone in terms of training so far? "Training for me so far has gone really good with my fitness looking good, in New Zealand we had great conditions and I have a new service man from Atomic and I am really happy with him. My GS skiing is also better than the last years and sometimes for me the technical part of Downhill was a problem, so if my GS skiing goes better then also it will be good for me in Downhill, I think it will be a good season". Who do you see as your main competitors? "The same Austrians, Hermann looks great, then Benni who won the Overall title last year. Svindal could be really fast, Miller has a great motivation with the new skis, so I think these 4 will be the main ones". What is your first race feeling like? "It's interesting to see how was the training, its good for me, Solden is the first race, in GS, but the first downhill is in Lake Louise, that's when the season really starts its always good to do the first race out of the way". You feel confident about the season? "Yes, if it goes on this way my fan club could be happy". Do you ever think a British skier can achieve a top placing? "Yes why not, Finlay I think is a great skier, he had a great race at Wengen, why not I think with good conditions and a good coach it can be done".
I would like to thank Austrian Tourism and Altenmarkt/Zauchensee Tourism for their help in arranging this interview. I would like to give a special thanks to Rupert and Ingrid Walchofer for their hospitality at the Zauchenseehof Hotel. Barry Spouge |
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After all of the action of last season's World Cup events plus the 2006 Winter Olympics Michael took time to reflect on his skiing career to date and talk about his ambitions for the future.
I asked him how he became noticed by coaches as it would seem every Austrian youngster wanted to be a skier in the same way as most every British boy wanted to play football? "The structure is very good in Austria for skiers so at first I started in the ski club in Altenmarkt. It's not easy as you always have to be the best or one of the best and I was in the team from Salzburgerland, if here you are the best and can beat the others you can do it. It is a hard way, it's a fight from - in my case- for 8 years against great racers. For my age group (born in 1975) when I started there were 500/1000 great skiers so you also need a bit of luck. In Austria, the whole way through skiing it is very competitive ". 
From Michaels view I asked what was the highlight of his career to date? "From the sport side it was the race in St Moritz and the Downhill title in 2004/05 and for my heart it was the victory in Kitzbuhel, because it is special race for all skiers although I did not ski so good there last season, I made a few mistakes but I gave it my all. When I finished I did not think I would be the winner, I thought I would be in 4th or 5th. I made some mistakes in the middle and on the traverse so I was really pleased in the end with the victory and it was in front of Austrian television. The crowds were very large and the prize ceremony in the evening had a crowd of 20/25,000 people, in many ways it means much more than the Olympics".
Of all the World Cup races which is the most difficult? "They are all so different with the conditions, Kitzbuhel is one and Garmisch could be really difficult as the most time it is very icy and very bumpy also Bormio it has 2 phases, December it is very bad light and most time very icy but by the World Championships it is a little better light and the piste is not so icy". I asked about Beaver Creek, with its jumps? "It is one of the greatest downhill's it is has all things that a downhill has to have. The first part you have to be a good glider it is so difficult, technical and steep. Every year I come back it looks the same very steep. It has some great jumps, a really great course, it's a course that's difficult but does not look so on TV". The Hahnenkamm looks difficult on TV is it so in the flesh? "Yes it is also difficult, Chamonix is also a course that looks on TV like a children's race but the first part is also difficult, for sure".
I have a big Fan Club, a lot of them were in Italy, but it was not so easy for them because, especially the walk down to the Finish area. But the sport was really great, perfect". You were glad to win a Silver Medal? "Yes, that was also good, I want the Gold Medal but the Silver medal is better than the Bronze" he said. Maybe in 4 years time I said? To which he replied "Maybe, don't think so at the moment, Vancouver for sportsmen could be perfect place and it could be a great place to hold the Olympics".
The interview over Michael invited us to see his collection of trophies, the Olympic Silver medal from 2006, various Crystal Globes and the famous Hahnenkamm trophy, a fantastic collection. We did agree to meet again in Val Gardena in December, when he will be competing in the Super G and Downhill, to talk about the season so far and if we find ourselves in Zauchensee during March next year the invitation is open to ski with him.
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