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THE START OF MY OLYMPIC JOURNEYWhen I was 13, I knew that I wanted to do something in sport, but I didnÕt know which discipline. I was really happy when I found Nordic combined. Jumping, on the one hand, and cross-country skiing, on the other hand: it seemed like a balanced process. It was not an easy decision because I told my parents that I didnÕt want to work in the family business. When I made this decision, it was also a commitment to try to do the best that I could, and to try to use every day to get a little bit better than I was the day before. At 13, it was quite late to take up something like ski jumping, but I obviously adapted pretty fast because by 1994, at the age of 18, I was at the Olympic Winter Games in Lillehammer Ð my first Games out of five. WITH SEVEN OLYMPIC MEDALS, AUSTRIA’S FELIX GOTTWALD IS THE GAMES’ MOST DECORATED NORDIC COMBINED ATHLETE OF ALL TIME. HERE, HE REFLECTS ON AN OLYMPIC CAREER THAT BEGAN IN 1994, AND REVEALS HOW HIS EXPERIENCES AT THE GAMES HAVE SHAPED HIS LIFE FELIX GOTTWALDMY GAMESMY FIRST GAMESI canÕt say that I look back that fondly at my first Games in 1994, because they were not the best results for me, but those Games definitely had the biggest impact on me. I will never forget the huge crowd of 100,000 people watching the cross-country races. I was just doing my warm-up for the competition and I was going too fast [because of the energy from the crowd]. I was almost too tired by the start of the race! It was a totally new experience for me.FINDING SUCCESS I was young in Lillehammer and didnÕt have the experience of something like the Youth Olympic Games. I had to gain this experience at the Olympic Games Ð and not only in Lillehammer, but also in Nagano four years later. It took until my third Games, in Salt Lake City, for me to be able to win my first medal. I won three bronze medals there, and afterwards I had to ask myself a question: ÒWhatÕs next?Ó Having been on the podium, I decided that I wanted to stand on the top and win an Olympic gold medal. I had four years to prepare and then, at the Games in Turin, I won two gold medals and one silver. After that, I decided to retire from competition because I wanted to change my life. I was not mentally ÒfreshÓ anymore, even though I was still in shape physically. That was reason enough to quit, and I didnÕt know if I would ever come back. RETURNING TO COMPETITIONI had a two-year break from 2007 to 2009. It was a really important break. I did other things. I wrote a book and got a different perspective on the Olympic Games. But then I had this feeling. I was working for Austrian tPicturedelevision during Felix Gottwald on the way to his third Olympic gold medal in Vancouver72 OLYMPIC REVIEW MY GAMES