Alpine Skiingthe interview
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Today at a conference in Ljubljana, the day after the sensational announcement of the retirement, the Slovenian slalomgiantist told how she came to decide to hang up her skis at the age of 24. "It's a psychophysical question, now I'll take some time to decide what to do in life, but I'm not sad".
Tuesday 25 October 2022 5 minutes reading time
In the thoughts of a young great athlete who dreamed of becoming a champion and for whom many professionals predicted a future as a serial winner in a giant.
Meta Hrovat has decided to leave competitive skiing, as he made known to the whole world yesterday afternoon, arousing great amazement and a veil of melancholy in many fans, if we think that the Slovenian '' 98 class still had a career ahead of it. to live, with the goal of the first victory in the World Cup (after four podiums, all third places and always between the wide doors) and who knows what else.
This morning, the 24-year-old from Kranjska Gora spoke at a press conference in Ljubljana, at the headquarters of the Slovenian federation, after talking about that "lost spark" and the physical problems, with the last injury suffered in March, in the giant of Lenzerheide (where he was returning to fight for the podium after a very complicated season, but with the 7th place in the Olympic race), which in the end will be decisive in making this decision.
Yes, because Meta, back on skis already in the heart of summer, since the right knee had not been operated on and had decided on a conservative therapy, began to suffer in this autumn of preparation on the hardest snows, especially in the last training sessions in Val Senales that led her to give up the opening in Soelden in advance, as told by her new coach Denis Steharnik, who in the spring had taken the place of Livio Magoni, who moved to Austria to follow Katharina Liensberger.
The inflamed patellar tendon was the final blow: "I decided to retire because after the fall of Lenzerheide I could no longer find the right sensations - explained Hrovat bluntly in the conference, as reported by the portal" Dnevnik "- On the psychophysical level , I no longer felt capable of achieving maximum results and feeling joy on the snow ”.
And again: "I wanted to be honest with myself and I feel like I am no longer able to give 100%, that's why I put an end to my career".
On the future and perhaps an afterthought, the former spearhead of the Slovenian national team (now in total emergency, also considering the injuries of Slokar and Robnik) does not want to expose himself too much. “I want to take some time for myself, I'm finally waiting for a moment when I won't answer reporters about my goals, I will certainly continue skiing for fun. I can say that it was not a sudden decision, I talked about it in the family, they support me and they understand. Now a new phase of my life begins ”.
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