Between soaring and crashing - Nadine Wallner has experienced it all. In 2013, at 23, she became the youngest freeride world champion ever, and the following year she managed to defend her title. Then the exceptional athlete had a bad accident - and managed to return to the style of a true champion. The Austrian is a Red Bull athlete and counts Audi, Mammut and Leki among her sponsors.
The fact that Nadine Wallner became interested in mountain sports so early on is thanks to her father - an experienced ski touring and mountain guide.
At the age of three, little Nadine stood on skis for the first time. At six, she is already skiing down Valluga, a 2809-meter mountain in the western Lechtal Alps. Since that day, it has been clear to her that the mountains are her world. At the age of 13, she conquers her first four-thousand-meter peak in the Western Alps.
Initially, Nadine Wallner aspires to a career as an alpine ski racer. After several injuries, however, she has to bury this dream early on. Instead, she begins training as a state ski instructor and ski guide. Afterwards, a friend advises her to turn her freeride hobby into a profession and to participate in professional contests.
Before she can join the world elite, however, Wallner first has to prove herself at the Freeride World Qualifiers in the 2011/2012 season. She succeeds impressively with victories on the Kitzsteinhorn (X-Over-Ride) and in Nendaz. She finishes the season in third place overall on the Qualifier Tour, earning her a starting spot on the 2012/2013 World Tour.
In her first professional year, she immediately becomes world champion as a "rookie". She improves from race to race: From fifth place in Kirkwood, to third place in Verbier and two second places in Chamonix and Revelstoke. With the triumph at her home race in Fieberbrunn, she finally crowned herself champion. And that was no coincidence: in the 2013/2014 season Nadine Wallner is able to repeat her previous year's success.
She does not succeed in defending her title again due to a serious injury. The accident happens when she is on the road in Alaska with a camera team and the two former world champions Aline Bock and Mitch Tölderer.
While shooting a ski film, Nadine Wallner falls 250 meters and suffers an open tibia and fibula fracture. "I think all of Alaska heard me scream," she says of the accident. Later, when Wallner is fit again, the filming is finished and the film is shown as part of the Freeride Film Festival Tour.
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For Italian biathlon queen Dorothea Wierer, the motto is: she always gives 100 percent. As a biathlete, she has to hold her own in a male-dominated scene. The media celebrated her as a supposed party queen. Her biathlon career as a now established world-class athlete with Olympic medals, world championship titles, and overall World Cup victories is nevertheless impressive - even in comparison with her male colleagues. ISPO.com spoke with the exceptional athlete from South Tyrol about her life in, alongside, and after professional sports, equal opportunities in sports, and catfights.
Dorothea, no other Italian or Italian woman has collected as many medals in biathlon as you. How do you train?
Dorothea Wierer: We are a comparatively small biathlon team in Italy and have always trained mixed in the past. I still train with the men, even though many young female biathletes have joined us in the meantime. But I like to compete with the men. There are a lot of very young guys who approach the training with ambition, but also take it easy, so the training is often quite fun.
What else do you pay special attention to?
Nutrition is important, of course, which is why we have our Italian chef with us in the World Cup, who is the envy of everyone. But I don't really pay attention to anything. I also drink an aperitivo while shopping with my girlfriends or a schnapps at a mountain hut when I'm on my own business and have time off. As far as sleeping is concerned, women simply need more sleep than men. I have to be a bit careful because sometimes I can't sleep when there's just so much going on. Besides the biathlon, my husband and I are currently building a house near Bolzano. Before, I didn't even know how incredibly much there is to decide. But now I've also woken up in the middle of the night thinking about the choice of floors.
You just mentioned the difference between men and women. Equal opportunities for women in sports is super present at the moment, how do you see it in the biathlon?
The biathlon sport itself is relatively neutral and everything is equal between men and women. Victory bonuses are the same and everyone earns the same money at the races. Family planning is much more difficult for women at the same time. We are constantly on the road from November to March. And after training and competitions, regeneration is incredibly important. Of course, that's not so easy with a baby. Many then take a year off or take the child with them on tour later with a nanny. But that's a personal, perhaps also culturally influenced issue, where everyone ticks differently. I want to be able to say later that I did everything one hundred percent. At the moment I'm concentrating fully on biathlon and if I stop at some point, family will come first. Today I don't have to have children at 20. It's still okay to have children at 30 or 40.
Of course, the cycle also plays a role for women in training and competition. If you're lucky, you won't have your period on race day. If you do, of course you still have to start, have three races in a row, for example, with back pain and heavy legs. Nevertheless, of course, the result list does not say: "had her menstruation". But it would actually be exciting.
The media also often talk about catfights among women. What about the competition between men and women?
In professional sports, we all want to win, whether men or women. I would say there is equal amount of conflict in men and women and it depends more on the person or character of the athletes. With women, the competition is often created from the outside, even if they are perhaps a bit more complicated than men.
Are you more of a training guy or a competition guy?
I've always been ambitious and more of a competition guy than a training guy. As soon as I put on my race number, I just want to be the best. That still motivates me a lot. That's what we all want in top-level sport, of course. You have to be made for it. On the one hand, you have to be a competitive type, and if you have to grit your teeth, you also have to know how to deal with setbacks. It all comes down to strength of character.
I already said at 23 that I wanted to quit, but now, at 32, I still really enjoy it. I don't want to say when I'll stop, and I re-evaluate after each season.
You have been in the World Cup for a while and are one of the more experienced athletes. Which time did you particularly enjoy?
I would say when I was 22 or 23, although I didn't win anything back then. Everything used to be a bit more relaxed and easy-going, I was out and about a lot in all kinds of new places, also partying. Sometimes maybe a bit too much (laughs). The boys today are a completely different generation and have been professionals from the start, so to speak, because there's a lot more money involved now, too.
Do you have a sporting role model?
Lindsey Vonn. She's already an extreme sports idol, also the way she's built up everything outside the World Cup circus, marketed herself and is still very present today, especially in the USA. If you also think about all her injuries, she's a tough bastard, if you can put it that way (laughs).
Rosi Mittermaier was the first female icon of winter sports. Though showered with superlatives, "Gold-Rosi" hung up her career early on. Later, she used her popularity to inspire social and sporting projects. The ISPO Cup winner recently passed away at the age of 72 after a serious illness. A portrait of an exceptional athlete and personality.
What distinguishes great sports careers from very great ones is a sense of ideal timing when it comes to quitting. Three months after her surprising double gold-plus-silver triumph at the 1976 Winter Olympics in Innsbruck, after a season in which she also wins the world title in the Alpine combined and the overall World Cup, Rosi Mittermaier says goodbye to the ski circus. Her enormous popularity remains unbroken decades later, as she continues to leave her mark on new slopes.
Certainly, the physically small (1.59 m) but great Rosa Katharina Mittermaier will continue to have an impact for a long time after her death—both personally and athletically. “You don't find a person like that again,” says soccer legend Sepp Maier on behalf of many who now miss Rosi Mittermaier very much. Tobias Gröber, Head of ISPO Group, writes in his letter of condolence to Rosi Mittermaier's family: “Rosi Mittermaier will always be remembered by us and the entire winter sports community for her lovable, open and cheerful manner. Her joie de vivre and enthusiasm were downright contagious and an inspiration for millions of people in Germany and far beyond.” Not only did she help the megatrend of Nordic Walking achieve a breakthrough in Germany, but her ski gymnastics exercises on Bavarian television have become a cult favourite. Her lifelong credo: Modern man should move, get out into nature, instead of wasting away sitting.
“She was a prime example of how to remain down-to-earth and accessible despite breathtaking success. She stood in exemplary fashion for love of one's homeland, sportsmanship, tolerance and fair play,” said Bavarian Prime Minister Markus Söder in praise of the ever-radiant Rosi Mittermaier, who was so much more than a ski racer. Namely, she was also a symbolic figure of the former Federal Republic; for the once ridiculed agricultural state of Bavaria, which has matured into an up-and-coming winter sports location anyway.
Rosi Mittermaier was a representative of the new, self-confident Bavaria, the female counterpart to Beckenbauer, Hoeneß and Müller, the nation's bomber. As an Olympic ambassador, she later promoted the Winter Games in Munich, and the CSU asked her to stand for the election of the Federal President in the Federal Assembly. A picture-perfect figurehead, this “Gold-Rosi”.
She celebrates her greatest sporting triumph in 1976—and suddenly everyone knows “Gold Rosi”. Before the Winter Olympics in Innsbruck, no one had her on their radar; others were the favourites. That's why people in Reit im Winkl are all the more excited when the then 25-year-old is escorted through her home by the police, with her three medals around her neck. Only the letter carrier named Steff sighs because he has to lug Rosi thousands of fan letters and packages up to the Winklmoos Alm every day. As a thank you for the delivery, there's always coffee and “a nice” snack from Rosi's mother. The Mittermaiers passed on the endless bouquets of flowers to hospitals in Traunstein and the surrounding area.
She achieved a total of 41 podium finishes in the Alpine Ski World Cup, including ten victories. Among other things, she made it to first place twice on Copper Mountain in the USA in 1976: in both the slalom and giant slalom.
Even ABBA was no competition for the Olympic champion. Despite their successful title “Dancing Queen”, the pop group had to settle for a bronze “Bravo-Otto” (German accolade awarded to of performers in film, television and music) in 1976, while Rosi Mittermaier, of course, took home the gold. The very first female “pop star” of skiing was born. The New York Times christened her “Miss Smile”, and “Rosi, we kiss you!” was the headline of the German Bild tabloid. “With this success, Rosi has made a significant contribution to women's sports being perceived differently,” says Maria Höfl-Riesch, who won one more Olympic gold medal as a ski racer than her idol, but was not celebrated nearly as frenetically. No one after Rosi Mittermaier achieved that.
Perhaps there were a few too many kisses for Rosi Mittermaier's modesty and her idyllic home: “There was no more grass growing in front of the house because there were so many people,” was how she explained her departure from the professional circus. Again and again, encroaching fans climbed over the fence to take a peek into Mittermaier's dining room.
The medals changed her circumstances, but Rosi remained Rosi. The snow (“When it snows, it's a jubilant day for me. Everything ugly was covered up.”), and skiing, she kept affirming, were her most beautiful things, “total freedom.” Because of the hype surrounding her, she gave up what she said she loved most of all.
The skier was as happy about her comrades' victories as she was about her own. She never radiated an Oliver Kahn-like obsession, instead: Cheerfulness and warmth of heart. As if the pure joy of gliding down the white splendour had won her the gold at the 1976 Olympic ski races. “She did not seek success, but perhaps that is why success found her,” surmises the “Tagesspiegel” in its obituary.
Mark McCormack also recognized that the golden Rosi had potential beyond the purely sporting. The US American, legendary founder of the International Management Group, is considered the inventor of modern sports marketing. Alongside tennis ace of the century Björn Borg and other top international athletes, he signed Rosi Mittermaier - the only German athlete who is no longer active.
The deal brings her two million marks for a three-year term, a huge sum at the time. She designs a winter sports collection, advertises skiing products, performs at advertising events, all over the world. In context of the time, Jet-Set-Rosi, at the end of the 1970s, was quite a modern woman for a girl from the Winklmoos-Alm.
This was the beginning of “a second life” for her, writes Rosi Mittermaier in 2011 in her book “Fröhlich bin ich sowieso ” (I'm happy anyway), an upbeat mix of autobiography, life and cooking recipes. “All of a sudden I was a businesswoman, although money was never important to me. I immersed myself in a completely new life, was able to discover new things and expand my horizons. I was constantly on the road. Whether in America or in Japan, across the world, everywhere I went … I was passed around with extreme pressure to keep appointments, as if I had done something extraordinary.” The latter would come across as pseudo-modest with many a star, but with Rosi you buy it.
She said she was grateful for New York, Rio, Tokyo, but the longer this journey lasted, the more she longed to return: “To my roots, to my Bavarian origins, from which I never wanted to move away.” Her parents and her siblings, her eternal great love Christian Neureuther, whom she met when she was 15, and her children meant everything to her; she also missed her friend Traudl's Kässpatzen (traditional German noodle dish with cheese) and the professional sewing machine her mother gave her as a wedding present.
She goes on to write: “When I see what influences children have to cope with nowadays, I realize how lucky I was to have had a childhood in simple circumstances.” Her parents had emigrated from Munich to Chiemgau. The Mittermaiers first ran an inn, later a student dormitory. Father Heinrich taught the guests how to ski, and mother Rosina took care of their meals. Rosi's family didn't need much for their happiness in life: “Harmony in the family, time for each other, health, and nature.”
For young Rosi, exercise was abundant: right outside her door. In this environment, she “casually acquired her need for movement and coordination for the rest of her life through fun and games. That's what the Playstation kids of today lack, she says. Rosi Mittermaier therefore publicly complained that sports were on the cross-off list of kindergartens and schools. “We parents also have a responsibility to do justice to these fundamental findings of human biology. We must provide our children with play and exercise,” she urged.
She also brought sport and nature closer to her own two children, the fashion designer Ameli Neureuther and the successful ski racer Felix Neureuther.
In the preface to her life story, she advises her readers to get up from the sofa between chapters and gently do squats or stretching exercises. Rosi Mittermaier's credo is that people need to move. Movement is the basic human instinct, which is in danger of atrophying in our civilized world.
With numerous books such as “The Healing Power of Sports: More Health with Fun and Enjoyment” or “Stable Bones - Mobile Life” she immortalized her appeal and inspired her readers. When the Hollywood megastar of the time, Jane Fonda, triggered a worldwide workout boom with aerobics videos, Rosi Mittermaier countered with ski gymnastics exercises on Bavarian television, which have since enjoyed cult status.
Together with Christian Neureuther, she helped Nordic Walking, which was initially unknown, to achieve a breakthrough in Germany. They published books and DVDs about this sport, which originated in Finland in the seventies, and they also delighted fans of this sport in many places with their “Nordic Walking Days”. Rosi and Christian, who already entertained an audience of millions in the early eighties as a feel-good couple, unusually equal for that time, as permanent guests on the TV show “Dalli Dalli,” are considered in this country to be the most important midwives of this megatrend.
For this, too, ISPO is honoring Rosi Mittermaier in 2005 for her life's work. “With Rosi Mittermaier, the sports world is losing not only an exceptional athlete, but above all a personality who was warm, likeable, and down-to-earth beyond all measure, despite all her fame,” said Tobias Gröber, Head of ISPO Group. “It was a great honor and pleasure for us to award Rosi with the ISPO Cup for her unique athletic career and her multifaceted social commitment.”
Her commitment to people who need help was indeed extraordinary. Among other things, Rosi Mittermaier contributed as patron of the Children's Rheumatism Foundation. “What hype is made about our top athletes, every little ache is worth a headline and is widely discussed,” she states in her book. Her heroes are the children in the clinic, “who fight for themselves and their health every day anew. My heroes are the doctors, caregivers, and parents who sacrificially care for the future of these children, who beam at me positively and tell me how well they are doing. The German Children's Rheumatism Foundation also expresses its condolences:
Rosi Mittermaier also got involved with the initiative against bone loss and as a sponsor for the initiative “Wir helfen Kindern” (We help children), which works to improve eye care for blind and visually impaired children in Nepal and Zimbabwe. She preferred to talk about these things rather than about her successes as a racer, which for her were no more than a nice episode in her life.
A longtime companion, actress Michaela May, sums up in one sentence what Rosi Mittermaier is most about: “For me, she wasn't 'Gold-Rosi' because of her medals, but because she was simply golden.” Many colleagues and athletes also mourn the ski racer, for example former Italian ski racer Paolo De Chiesa, who finds touching words on his Instagram profile: “Farewell to Rosi Mittermaier, the gentle super champion!”
