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She returned to the race with the 9th place in Soelden, her best career result in giant. Is the 25-year-old from Engelberg the great hope for Switzerland?
Thursday 7 November 2019 8 minutes reading time
We believe so, and we also talked about it in a piece from a few days ago. Michelle Gisin has the potential to become the possible heir to the throne of Mikaela Shiffrin, who at this time still seems to be unstoppable.
We are talking about an athlete who has not yet won in the World Cup (despite having won six podiums, with four second places), but after the Olympic gold combined with PyeongChang 2018, precisely beating the US superstar, and the 7th place in the general classification of the maximum circuit, last season seemed to be really that of the definitive explosion of Dominique's sister, already Olympic champion downhill in Sochi 2014.
The 5th place in the Killington slalom, followed the following week by the double podium (second and third) in the slopes of Lake Louise, had launched the Helvetician behind the same Shiffrin in the overall, before everything changed the day the brother Marc fell in the descent in Val Gardena, risking his life. A few hours after that December 15, even Michelle had to compete on the Saslong, but the mind was completely different, until the accident in Garmisch at the end of January and the early stop, thus losing the World Championships in Are, causes a problem to the knee.
After the big debut on the Rettenbach, the Engelberg multipurpose spoke to the Swiss-ski press office, releasing a very interesting interview from various points of view, starting from the changes made after the accident, as Michelle he hadn't stopped for a physical problem for almost eight years. "I needed this peace, it was an opportunity to clear everything and take care of myself, but also to understand the potential of work and development with my team. And my sister Dominique, as an external consultant, is always very useful ".
The first step was to accept the accident "very quickly, while it was very different for what happened to Marc - he recalled referring to his brother's terrible fall - There were very heavy phases in January, every type of event, from the 'extraction of bibs at meetings with media and sponsors, which I usually like to die for, became a grueling thing. Everyone wanted to know about Marc's condition, our family found incredible support and sympathy, which meant a lot to us. Now that everything is going well and I'm ready to put all the positive energy possible. "
On the ambitions in an absolute sense, Gisin explains: "I want to be at the starting gate in all disciplines, even the giant is now very important to me, even if the main objective is the descent and fight for the crystal ball of specialty . I hope to return to the same point of a year ago at speed, I love the races at Lake Louise where I got three podiums in the last two years and it will be important to start well from there ".
Is winning the general World Cup the long-term goal? "Just being able to fight for the crystal ball at the finals would be a great dream - Michelle's answer - Winning it is one of my biggest goals, but it takes a perfect season and I hope sooner or later to succeed."
Two key career moments? Curiously, he lived them in the same place ... "To Zinal, where I first saved and then relaunched my career. Both times it happened during a FIS race: in April 2012, at the end of the re-entry season after the break of the knee crusader, I was able to win a super-g and it was crucial, because without that success I probably would have lost my status in team C. I had just graduated from high school and, without the possibility of training with a national team, I don't know if I would have continued my skiing career.
And at the beginning of the next vintage, I won two FIS slaloms, again in Zinal, and it was pretty much the starting signal to get to high level; however, from an emotional point of view, it is clear that the crucial moments were the World Cup in Sankt Moritz 2017 and the Olympic combined title in PyeongChang ".
In Michelle's life there is her boyfriend, Luca De Aliprandini, who very often advises her and “helps me to improve, just think that, together with my brother Marc, we looked at the Olympic combined and both found several things to correct. So much so that at one point I told them: "Hey, but I won".
To underline how the 25-year-old Swiss is also careful outside the slopes, she had even thought of learning Swedish to present herself at the best in the world championships in Are. "After the injury, obviously my motivation in this regard has slightly decreased, but I want to improve it and it is a pity not to have been able to meet Sarah Hector in the pre-season to practice. In the meantime I continue to work on my Spanish and for now ... that's enough for me. "
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Downhill Female Lake Louise (CAN)
LEDECKA Ester
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