Human Lara!: Why Switzerland is wrongly deceiving Gut-Behrami

Lara Gut-Behrami. A name that was already polarizing back then, in Sochi in 2014. It still works today. You often have the feeling that Switzerland is not ready for someone like her. Who openly says what she thinks. But she also remains silent sometimes and walks past everyone when she doesn’t feel like giving out information.

The Swiss sports favorites of the past were always different. More adapted, friendlier, more open. As a result, Russi, Fedi, Vreni, Ferdy and Co. national shrines. Odi is currently on this path. Loved by everyone, a part of us.

Is Gut-Behrami the female version of Xhaka?

But Gut-Behrami doesn’t fit into this series. She looks more like the female version of a Granit Xhaka – maverick, maverick, someone with rough edges. That is why Switzerland still has strangers with the Ticino woman and, conversely, probably regular strangers with Mr. and Mrs. Schweizer.

The beginning of the relationship between the Swiss sports community and young Lara was still peaceful and heart-warming.

St. Moritz, February 2, 2008. Lara Gut, just 16 years old, starts her first World Cup descent with number 32. Shortly before the finish, her skis tore, she fell and slid across the finish line lying on her back. The crazy thing about it: she still finished third and was on the podium for the first time in her fifth World Cup race.

When she stands up again in the finish area and realizes what she has just achieved, she laughs heartily and waves happily to the audience. Her milky face still full of snow and her eyes sparkling. In the TV interview she then speaks so quickly and effervescently that it is difficult to understand her. On that memorable day, she won her way into the hearts of sports fans, and after years of famine, Switzerland finally had the country’s new fast ski treasure.

It could have been the beginning of a beautiful love. But that wasn’t the case. It’s hard to say what went wrong between Gut-Behrami, the media and the fans. In the years that followed, she isolated herself more and more. Responded curtly to questions that did not please her. The give and take that all our ski stars had always adhered to did not matter. I preferred to put on a bad face when I played a bad game. Categorically and vehemently rejected the role of the country’s ski enthusiast (albeit a relic of the 80s and 90s).

«…the lonelier you feel»

She always kept to herself how the now young woman really felt in the 2010s. It was only in the documentary ‘Looking for Sunshine’ by Niccolò Castelli from Ticino, which was released in 2018, that the public learned that there was an insecure athlete who had lost himself as a person on his way to the top of the world. and who really only wanted one thing: racing. And there was one thing she absolutely did not want: to be in the spotlight and to be judged as an object.

The big misunderstanding was long gone. “The further you get to the top, the lonelier you feel. Fewer and fewer people understand you,” Gut-Behrami said in the documentary. And further: “I always wanted to be faster, higher, better. That was always my strength, but also my weakness, because in the end I never found peace. For a long time the head said it was too much.”

In the documentary, the then 26-year-old also said a sentence that, in retrospect, is surprising and explains a lot: “The last time I felt human, I was 18.” She had previously revealed: “I was lost at times and didn’t know what was best for me. All I had to do was deliver, deliver, deliver.”

Pyeongchang, February 17, 2018. After the best riders in the world reached the finish line, Gut-Behrami is in bronze place in the Olympic Super-G. But then the Czech Ester Ledecka starts with number 26. The current world snowboard champion unexpectedly wins gold and knocks Gut-Behrami off the podium. She is just twelve hundredths of a second away from her long-awaited Olympic victory and just one hundredth away from a medal. While Gut cries in the finish area, the vast majority of Swiss journalists cheer more or less openly.

Since the ski circus is small, one can assume that Gut-Behrami noticed the journalists’ gloating at the time or at least found out about it later. But she also shares some of the blame for the complicated relationship between her and the media. When she sneezed and was asked if she was sick, she replied, “No, it’s just my allergy to journalists.” Only she knows if it was just a joke or meant seriously.

The question inevitably arises whether we all cannot understand Gut-Behrami or whether we do not want to understand them. Do we Bünzli-Swiss simply prefer a ski racer like Michelle Gisin, who smiles kindly and waves politely to the crowd even when she comes in eighth place, than a Lara Gut-Behrami who is annoyed in second place because she doesn’t has won? What we forget: it may be precisely because of this sympathetic character trait that Gisin has only won one World Cup race, but Gut-Behrami has already won her 45th.

The second is the first loser

Maybe we should just accept that Gut-Behrami subordinates everything to success. Without taking losses into account. For example, year after year at the Sports Awards, unlike the majority of the other nominees, she does not sit in the studio because it does not help her and she prefers to take her strength into account. It doesn’t matter how it is received by the public.

Such behavior is not arrogant, but rather that of a confident, ambitious athlete who knows exactly what is good for her and what is not. And she knows very well that in top sport, the number two is the first loser.

Méribel, February 2023. For the first time in four years, Gut-Behrami missed a medal at a major event. When asked by a journalist from Ticino television about her failed races, she replied: “What can I say? It was just a bad two weeks.”

There she was again, the honest and authentic Gut-Behrami. Why cover up something that, from your subjective point of view, cannot be covered up?

Lara Gut-Behrami is now 32 years old. The end of her great career is in sight. She prefers to remain silent rather than talk to journalists in detail. Unlike all other drivers, she still consciously keeps half a meter more distance from media representatives during conversations. She is still the only person who has never asked her journalist colleague a question, whether it is about how he or she is doing or how the trip was.

Will she disappear completely soon?

But when Gut-Behrami opens his mouth at this moment, listen carefully, because this is now a reflective athlete and woman speaking. «I try to see everything in a different light. Not just focusing on the result, but also on the fact that my family and I did something incredible together.”

She still regularly achieves “unbelievable things”, including this season. Her second victory in the overall World Cup would be the crowning achievement of her career and ultimately make her a skiing legend. So let’s enjoy the time we can still spend with Gut-Behrami, because it is very possible that after the end of her career she will disappear completely and live a life far away from the public eye. Man Lara, it’s really a shame…