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“Austria is a small country and skiing is the number one sport, so it is inevitable that the best skiers will be very famous. To be able to earn a living doing something I love is a privilege – I know I am lucky – but it is hard to sacrifice some of my privacy.”“I enjoy the adrenaline of extreme sports like whitewater kayaking, rock climbing and dirt biking. Fear helps you to feel alive. But I would say that downhill skiing is more frightening because when you are speeding down the slope, there is no time to improve or practise.” FAMEADRENALINE BALANCE“Slalom is a balance. Strength or talent on their own are not enough. I know guys in the gym who can back squat 250kg, but do not have the technique of other competitors. There are skiers who are more talented than me, and others who are stronger, but I think I have a good balance between the two qualities.”“I think I started skiing when I was two-and-a-half years old. My parents worked at a local ski school near Annaberg in Austria and they gave me some little skis and I never looked back. Dad said he had seen thousands of kids on the slopes for the first time but he had never seen one before me who could turn without falling. I don’t know exactly how old I was for my first race, but it was a big event with 500 or 600 kids maybe between the ages of six and 12. All the slopes were named after superheroes – the Batman slope, the Superman slope. Did I win? All I can say is that I won almost every race when I was growing up.”TALENT“All six of my overall World Cup globes are special to me. Winning in 2012 was an incredible experience because it was the first, while 2015 was special because I equalled the record of four globes of my countryman Hermann Maier. It was the same in 2016 when I matched the record of five won by my hero Marc Girardelli. But I try not to look to the past because it is not that important. Today is a new era with a new generation of athletes.”ACHIEVEMENT“In the working environment I call him the ‘Supervisor’ and I turn to him for advice on which lines I should take in a race, my skis and my set-up. I don’t find it difficult to separate the personal and professional with my father but I do admit it was harder when I was a teenager and I was trying to find my own identity. Today, I am the boss because it is me who has to live with the consequences of what happens in a race.” MY FATHER“In Vancouver [in 2010] I was a little overawed; I was young and the conditions were soft, which I don’t like. In Sochi [in 2014], I was surprised to take a silver medal in the slalom even though the conditions were again not favourable. In PyeongChang, I will have another chance to win Olympic gold, but it is not something I will lose sleep over. If I am successful I will be happy, but my career will not be defined by becoming Olympic champion.”OLYMPIC EXPERIENCESDESTINATION PYEONGCHANGOLYMPIC REVIEW 47