Alpine Skiingthe interview
Damiano Basso
It will be a season of great changes, starting from the material, for the blue slalom player. Here are his feelings and ... ambitions, with the aim of growing into a giant.
Thursday 28 July 2022 7 minutes reading time
Alex Vinatzer will celebrate 23 years next September and a clear goal for the 2022/23 vintage is to finally unlock himself in the World Cup, he has already been a protagonist among the "greats" since that surprise debut at the PyeongChang 2018 Olympic Games.
With the arrival at Atomic, the Val Gardena slalom player is heading towards a new phase of a career still to be written and it is clear that, especially in terms of continuity, now it is necessary to make another qualitative leap to play permanently with the greats. of rapid gates.
Through the press office of the Austrian brand, the blue talked about himself in the midst of a preparation (which sees him protagonist in these days, together with his teammates, between the Saas-Fee and Peer rallies) with which launch in the best way towards Soelden, with the aim of doing well also in giant, but above all "his" slalom.
On the change of materials, here are Alex's thoughts: “First of all, the material must be performing and the service must be functional, then I did the tests with a very professional approach, I was treated really well and I found myself ... God.
Even with the skis I immediately felt comfortable: as soon as I put them on, I felt the right feeling from the first day, I felt very comfortable and I trusted my feelings ".
But there is more, in fact, one of the main reasons that pushed the "ninja" to Atomic is also to make that further leap into a giant level, a discipline to which he will try to devote more time. Vinatzer explains that he will participate in some FIS races in Argentina in September to try to lower the points and to start off on the right foot in view of the CdM season. But what distance do you have today with the wide door specialists? “I don't feel so distant, I have to be honest, but I should be able to do a few more races to find the right pace. The times in training are not far off, then it is also useful for the slalom to have the opportunity to train continuously with the giant players ".
Speaking of materials, his new Atomic Redster skis and boots, Vinny's eyes literally light up, already because his bow arrows are ready to be fired from the first World Cup start; the ideal slalom ski according to Alex ... what is it? “It has to be easy and stable, and by easy I mean that it allows you to make the curve in a short time and in case of a mistake you can recover immediately”.
Clear ideas, indeed, very clear even about the boots: “More or less the same reasoning applies to skiing, it must be stable, but still allow a certain freedom of movement. Sometimes you can choose it too soft, which allows you to move well, but it is unstable, or if it is too stable and, therefore too hard, you do not move on your ankles; it is necessary to find the optimal mix, this is the magic formula that allows you to go faster ”.
During this first part of the summer, Alex Vinatzer worked really hard in terms of athletic training and you can see it from the muscle mass, which has grown compared to last season: "I dedicate an average of 4 hours a day to athletic training and gym - confides the blue - plus everything connected to a session, i.e. massages, stretching etc. You arrive between 5 and 5 and a half hours. In short, the whole day is pretty full, but recovery and attention to nutrition are now part of my routine.
I really believe in it, in fact I try to eat well, the right things following a specific integration program, but not really nutrition ”.
Like all young people, when you aspire to become champions in skiing, you are inspired by a champion. Alex explains, for example, how he was a fan of “Bode Miller, followed by Ligety, Hirscher and Kristoffersen. When you enter the World Cup, you no longer let yourself be inspired by an athlete, however. It is more about yourself that you have to work trying to improve as much as possible, more than looking at others ”.
A dream that has come true and one that the blue would like to realize? Dry answer: “The dream that has come true is that of being able to become a World Cup athlete, since I was a child it has always been my great desire. While a dream to be realized is to win a World Cup ”.
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