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At
four o’clock in the afternoon, Italy’s Isolde
Kostner, the best downhill specialist on the World Cup
tour, is working out in a gymnasium situated next to
her hotel. Later on, she will receive a massage from
her physiotherapist Elena Semplisi who exclusively takes
scare of her this season.
In the basement of her hotel, her serviceman Stefano
Holzer prepares a couple of racing skis which he selected
from one of the heavy bags he always carried around
with him.
Valerio Ghirardi, her personal trainer, is taking notes
while checking a video tape showing the race of the
day. Sometimes he researches some information in his
books in which he has compiled thousands of parameters
on Isolde’s races from the last years. After dinner,
he will expose his discoveries to Isolde and discuss
the tactical approach for the next race.
Isolde came in 3rd today – her fourth consecutive
podium in the event this winter. But they aim for more…
In Vicenza, Daniela Mancini is answering the phone in
her promotion and marketing office which is responsible
to research and handles the sponsors of the Italian
star who is supposed to have earned billions of lira
in winning a dozen of races and two gold medals at passed
World Championships. Last season, she became the first
Italian ever to clinch the downhill World Cup title!
Jenny
blew the wax
At the same time, Jenny Owens is preparing her skis
by herself in a little room near her hotel. The 23-year
Australian from Sydney came in 35th today, over two
seconds behind the winner. She missed a World Cup point
by only 16/100 of a second.
“I blew the wax, I made the wrong choice”
said the attractive racer from “Down Under”.
“I guessed that the snow would be warmer and I
didn’t glide smoothly enough on the speed section”
she added with a smile as she cleaned the base of her
ski. Soon she will melt some wax that she bought from
a Swiss company and press it on the base with a iron.
Jenny looks like a beach bunny – with her bright
smile, her sparkling eyes and her athletic body, she
should apply for a role in the Australian version of
“Baywatch” instead of inhaling the vapors
of the hot wax and breaking her finger nails on the
sharp edges of her skis.
But her passion is ski racing – and this for more
than ten years now.
“I learned to ski with my family when I was younger
and I soon got interested by ski racing” she explains.
“When I was 14, I flew over to Europe to train
with other young kids of my age. I improve enough to
win several national titles in downhill, Super-G and
giant slalom which qualified me for the Europacup and
World Coup series. This is my third year on the World
Cup and I’m quite excited that I can compete next
month at the Olympics at Salt Lake City. It will be
a memorable moment in my career and my life”.
She
pays for her passion!
Jenny Owens pays a high price to be allowed to exercise
her talent on the snowfields around the globe.
“ Ski racing is not a very popular sport compared
to swimming or rugby and the downhill team don’t
get substantial support from the Olympic Committee or
the State” she says.
“Our friends or parents have to back us financially
- summer training costs often ten thousands of US dollars
each summer. In Australian or New Zealand, it’s
difficult to train downhill and we have to compete in
the Continental Cup events to promote the sport for
the younger generation.
We don’t train in South America as most of the
European or US teams”.
“When the downhill season starts in Europe or North
America, we often begin without meaningful training
mileage under our skis. We need much time to find our
best rhythm. Paying for it, we can practice along stronger
national teams, but during the season it’s difficult
to stay together. “Skiing is a very competitive
sport and each team prefers to focus on it’s own
racers”.
“That’s way each top-30 result is sort of
a victory for me. I’m very proud of myself when
I score World Cup points as I did last month at St Moritz”.
“There is a lot of work and many sacrifices behind
each result”.
First
victory for Malcolm Milne
In December 1969, Malcolm Milne became the first Australian
skier to celebrate a World Cup victory in Val d’Isère
where he won a downhill. Three months later, he captured
the bronze medal in the specialty at Val Gardena. But
in those years, he was “adopted” by the French
ski Team who took care of him during the whole winter.
Later on, other Australian as Steven Lee and of course
Zali Steggall also excelled as the top level. Lee won
a World Cup Super-G in Japan in 1985 and Steggall the
gold medal in slalom at Vail in 1999.
Jenny is traveling with a teammate, Alice Jones, 45th
in this first downhill of the year, and a single trainer.
“It would be like a dream to travel with a staff
– a serviceman, a physio, some assistants as the
big teams, you must feel very comfortable” she
added.
“Zali is in a better situation than us since her
success at Vail. That’s normal. Once you’re
at the top, things improve a lot”.
“Now instead of waxing my skis, I could be working
out, relaxing or focusing on the next race. In these
conditions, it’s really tough to progress –
and to get attention or support from sponsors or Australian
Sports Officials”.
A
bad slalom race
“But I don’t want to complain, I’m doing
what I like the most. Fortunately, my boy friend is
a member of the men’s team so we can meet more
often as if he would live in Australia”.
“I hope to improve by result tomorrow, I would
be happy to score again some points. It would be good
for my moral. It’s important to be consistent to
improve the rankings and the confidence”.
“I didn’t ski so well at St Anton last year,
but at Salt Lake City, it should be better. I plan to
compete in the speed events and in the combined. The
Olympics are big at home, it will be fun”.
In the second downhill, Jenny finished back in the pack
– far from the World Cup points after a disappointing
run. “I blew it, I’m not please at all with
my run today, it’s just too bad because it may
have been my last World Cup race this winter. I’m
going to compete in some Europacup events and then I
start to focus on the Olympics. I’ll train in Canada.
Hopefully it will help me to find back a better form.
I’m looking forward for these Olympics, it should
be fun”.
She also competed in the slalom on Sunday in order to
score some points in the combined. She finished it far
behind the leaders, but her 17th place in the combined
(and next-to-last) didn’t bring her any point because
her delay on the leaders was too high (over 8 % of the
total time). Too bad because she could have entered
the top-100 of the Overall standings.
She will try harder next time, because she wants more
in future.
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