I usually avoid telephone interviews because it is difficult, without eye contact, to give due weight to words. But in the case of Lara Gut it was different. During a trip to Lausanne, the Ticino athlete told herself about a sincere chat, without too many filters, even if she didn't want to talk too much about her private life.
Let's start with your passion for skiing. A passion that has infected you since childhood ...
“I don't remember a time when I didn't ski. My luck was not so much that I had the opportunity to do it, but that of spending a lot of time with my parents. I have wonderful memories of skiing, even before getting on a podium. But I must also say that I realized that was what I actually wanted to do only at eighteen, when I got hurt the first time. At that point, still, I realized that my life without skiing would not have been the same ».
You achieved important results very young and many spoke of you as a great Swiss talent ...
(A moment of silence). "Do you know what? I don't really like talking about talent. I think the term talent is often used because certain results cannot be explained. Talent can for example be the ease of doing something or the precocity in doing a certain sport. For example: if a young sportsman manages to mask his difficulties, perhaps because he has a spirit of adaptation higher than his peers, he is classified as talented, but without commitment there is no talent. I certainly had ease in skiing, I used every free moment to do it, but already as a young girl I worked very hard and I was looking for continuous improvement. Then when the adolescent phase takes over you can have all the talent in this world (let's call it that), but if there is no determination, the desire to get involved… you won't get anywhere ».
It must also be said that the adolescent phase coincides with school commitments, which are not always easy to follow. How did you go to school?
“Maybe you don't believe it, but if there was one other thing that I did well, besides skiing, it was school. I've always been curious, I liked learning, plus I had teachers who stimulated me a lot. When I started middle school, however, it was not easy to combine study and training, luckily both the teachers and the director of the school gave me a hand. It must also be said that a sportsman quickly learns to be diligent and this also helps at the school level, perhaps it is thanks to my sporting rigor that I then managed to achieve the maturity as a privatist. I do not hide that they were hard years, there were times when I could not open the books, but it was my choice and in the end I made it, I adapted, I did not cling to excuses like I'm too tired or I'm not in the ideal place to study… even when I ski I have to know how to adapt to the snow, to the bib number. In life you can always find excuses… but if you do it better give up before starting ».
I guess you are in favor of a school, already at the middle level, designed specifically for young elite sportsmen and artists. Today we are only in the experimentation phase ...
«It is very important to help and we must also understand that it is not a question of benefiting anyone, we sportsmen are not spoiled and above all we are not princes. We need to value young sportsmen, we cannot afford for a boy, at fifteen, to drop out of school for sport and find himself at thirty with nothing in hand. In our society it is becoming increasingly difficult to reconcile school and sport, let's think of America! If you are an athlete you are facilitated in everything, you can go to the University without giving up training. Is it possible that in Switzerland, with all the elite sportsmen we have, it is not possible to go in this direction? Many times we forget that athletes are athletes every minute of their life, every day, and, believe me, it's not an easy life ».
Very often, if you are not in contact with a professional sportsman, you do not realize all the sacrifices that an athlete has to face. Have you already thought about your post career?
(Laughs) «To tell the truth I hope to still have years of career ahead of me and at this moment, thanks to the experience I have gained so far, I am planning the second part of my career. I absolutely want to focus on what I'm doing, not get distracted by tomorrow since I'm not running out yet. But I must also tell you that I would like to stay in the sports field, after all there are many figures next to the athlete who were not there in the past, let's think of the social network managers ... who knows if it is not something I would like to do. We'll see…".
You are very attached to your dad, it is not obvious to have a father coach ...
«My dad is the most important person in my whole team, in my entire career. My parents, my brother, are very important to me. In my life as an athlete my dad has always been able to give me serenity and stability, and that's what I need. Together we decided a line to follow, we chose and planned it together, together we grew up, nobody knows me like him, he knows exactly what is best for me and I have an open dialogue with him, I can tell him everything: my fears , my perplexities and this has always given me great mental security over the years, which is not taken for granted ».
Here I really wanted to talk to you about the mental, because in sport it is a very important factor and it is not always easy to manage ...
«You have to train the mental every day, my dad always told me:“ The mental counts for 90%, the rest is the engine ”. This is why even when you go to train you have to give your best, you have to concentrate, you cannot think of being ready for the competition if you cannot concentrate during the exercises. We all live in a frenzy, we always think about tomorrow, about what we still have to do… instead we must learn to live in the moment. The race must be tackled one corner after another, every skiing must be thought out, analyzed, many good skiing make a good race. If you lose this focus, if you start thinking about how many races you have to win to win the World Cup… the pressure becomes too much and it can play against you. Over the years I have learned to analyze myself a lot, today I am fine, but think about where I was a year ago, after the injury ... it was not easy to recover, also because I was sick, I had to do a lot of physiotherapy and I knew that at that moment the opponent more fearful was myself. You know… (a pause) you can't always win and even when you win… you tell yourself: I could have done better, but defeats are part of life, I've learned to cash in and look forward, think about my job. We must always know how to get up ».
Are you disappointed with this season?
"Absolutely no. It was a super season. Often we tend to reduce everything to the result… but if I had been twelve cents faster I would be Olympic champion, if I hadn't fallen once I would have had the Super-G cup and what did that mean? That I was going to make a super comeback? While falling once, failing a race, I threw my season away? No, because a year ago at this time I had a broken crusader, I couldn't even bend it. Despite this, I managed to get back on track, to do what I wanted, to do what I love and for this I say proud that it was a successful season ».
You are always on the go, busy training, but you always find some time for your family and friends ...
“I don't know what it would be like in another life, but in this one I learned to appreciate the few free moments and invest them with those who are worthwhile. Over the years I have reduced my circle of friends, I have fewer contacts on the phone, but many more sincere friends that I can rely on ».
And in the moments when you find yourself alone? What do you like to do?
«I read and if I have a little more time I start cooking, because cooking brings me closer to the people I love. For example… my brother loves chocolate cake and, when I can, I make him one that we can then eat together (laughs) ».
But don't you have to follow a strict diet? Or do you manage to overshoot every now and then ...
"I eat a little bit of everything, but not because I'm lucky enough to be able to eat whatever I want, also because the food, which is the gasoline I put in my body, is the basis of my training, and I have to be very careful about choices I make. But even living in hardship is not right ... so if there is a slice of chocolate cake to eat, I taste it, like my brother's company. After all, everything is in the quantity and in knowing how to dose, not only with regard to food, I must also be careful to get enough sleep, not to spend hours on the cell phone (which is not a bad thing I add ...) "
I know you wanted to find a house in Ticino… did you do it?
«Yes, yes, I have lived in Lugano for practically a year. I am happy to have found a house of my own, a foothold in Ticino and I want to keep it. Here I have my things, my family, my friends, even if I have to be honest: when I travel I don't feel homesick and even after my career I think I'll look for a job that allows me to travel ».
Five more minutes (the voice of the press officer)
But maybe in Ticino you don't have much privacy since practically everyone knows your face ...
“Here I get a lot of energy. People often approach me, but I have to be honest: there are also times when I would like people to understand that I have a private life and that I am not always around to represent the athlete. I appreciate when people keep a certain distance and avoid giving me advice, also because seeing me on television many are convinced that they know me ... and for me it is difficult to manage physical contacts, even if they are just hugs. While I am available for a greeting or a photo, also because I realized that many people get excited seeing me compete, I find this a fantastic thing ».
In the past there have been those who have described you as capricious or even unpleasant, what do you say?
«In the past I have often tried to defend myself by closing myself off, therefore also giving very dry and short answers, because I did not want to show how much I suffered. When I said that I stopped reading the newspapers it was not because I thought myself superior, but because in the end I am a person ... when you criticize the performance of the athlete is one thing, but judging your being is another.
And then capricious? Just because I was lucky enough to have a family to follow me and why did I choose to go my own way? The fact that I prepared myself as a private person was not a whim, but it was an attempt to evolve even more, I never wanted to criticize the team, but I knew that to realize my dream I needed something else, to go to mine. direction. And today I would do everything I did again, because this is the life I had dreamed of ».
Lara herself recently announced that she has a relationship with Valon Behrami, a Swiss footballer currently at Udinese. Are you happy? (Silence) "Yes."
«In the past years I have often had a feeling of incompleteness and I have always thought that it was linked to the world of skiing. This winter I discovered what the missing piece was and it had nothing to do with sport: it's called love.
With Valon, I discovered the strength of being in two ».
cit. Lara gut
