Female skiers were treated unfairly, cut and left alone

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They are small gestures, but they say a lot. Lara Gut-Behrami (31) hugs Jasmine Flury (29) in Méribel and says: “She had to go down a lot and deserved the world title.” In Crans-Montana, young Delia Durrer (20) messed up her descent and was comforted for a long time by Joana Hählen (31). In the same race, Stephanie Jenal (24) races to 19th place and with it the best downhill result of her career – Michelle Gisin (29) interrupts her interview and stretches her arms to the sky.

Everthing okay? Today it is. But it was not so long ago that the situation in the women’s ski team was very different. More precisely: ten years ago. At that time, Switzerland was not the number 1 country as it is now, but number 6 in the Nations World Cup and with 3279 points did not even hold a third of Austria (10,903 points). The situation in the women’s team was correspondingly tense when Hählen made her World Cup debut in November 2013.

“There was a lot of unrest and a lot of elbow work. The older drivers announced the rate. You can’t compare that to today,” says Hählen. De Berner emphasizes that she had good friends such as Tina Weirather, Nadja Kamer and Fränzi Aufdenblatten. “But I was also treated unfairly by other, older drivers.” Hählen does not want to name the names .

Hählen: “What’s the point of that?”

The problem was widespread and not only affected Hählen within the Swiss team. “On the bus it was clear that as a young athlete I would sit in the back. Or that I get on the snowmobile last during training. For me, that also had something to do with respect for the established athletes,” recalls Downhill World Champion Jasmine Flury (29).

She also noticed how Hählen was treated. “The same was true for others. It was very different from now where hierarchies are flatter and everyone is very social. It would have helped me if it had been like that then. I also felt a bit lost in between.”

Hählen does not speak of bullying – she has not experienced that. There were subtler gestures and words, just pinpricks. For example, she was told, “Hey, don’t you like this slope? You won’t get here that fast.” It was the opposite of what she had hoped for. “What should that help? I treat teammates as I would like to be treated myself. In the speed disciplines, where experience is very important, I think it is important that tips are exchanged.”

Holdener: ‘I often felt alone’

One of Hählen’s best friends is Wendy Holdener (29). “When I came to the World Cup in 2010, I also had to come down. I was 16 and the senior slalom team was under a lot of pressure at the time. I just joined and had great results right away. That was hard for her,” says Holdener. At the same time, she found it difficult that her environment of the offspring was no longer there overnight. “Suddenly you are traveling for months with completely different people and your family is no longer there. I often felt alone then.”

The situation was different with Gisin, who gained a foothold among the ‘greats’ two years after Holdener. “Wendy and Denise Feierabend were the team leaders in the slalom, I joined them. There were mainly three of us and we always had a good time. It was and is important to me that the young drivers feel comfortable with us. I try to pick them up and support them.”

That’s what Swiss-Ski says about the business

Today, the Swiss team is not only much broader than in the early days of Hählen, Flury, Holdener and Gisin. The mood is also very different. “The culture of the athletes at Swiss-Ski has changed a lot over the last decade,” says Walter Reusser.

The alpine director mentions three points: “First, hierarchical thinking is different, and not just in sports. The younger ones often have more self-confidence and the older ones respect and help them. I find this development very positive. Secondly, the trainers have a long-term plan with the young drivers and they focus on their level. Thirdly, we have adapted the structures so that the riders going from the European Cup to the World Cup are taken care of by their regular trainers – so that they keep their main reference person. And in general, we pursue the goal of advancing the athletes according to their abilities with foresight and creating an environment that facilitates individual development. Today, athletes train in homogeneous groups with similar goals and plans. This way, groups remain stable and can develop continuously.”

Source : Blick