Pirmin Zurbriggen almost missed out on the Olympic Games in Calgary - because of an internal "soccer stunt". "We were so unprofessional," says the skiing legend.
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- It almost came to disaster at the 1988 Olympic Games in Calgary. It didn't take much and superstar Pirmin Zurbriggen wouldn't have been able to compete, because his colleague Paul Accola mowed him down during a fun soccer match.
- "Päuli didn't want that on purpose," says Zurbriggen in the Olympic talk. He only got fit again just in time thanks to very good medical care.
- Zurbriggen shakes his head. "Today, you'd call it unprofessional to play football on an ice rink before the Olympics. Back then, we always played football," he says.
No one has ever accused him of lacking ambition, neither as an excavator driver, which he still is professionally today. Nor as a ski racer, which he was for 15 years: Paul Accola, overall World Cup winner in 1992 and five-time medal winner at major events. He always went about his work with determination and passion - even in training.
His teammates also had to recognize this and sometimes pay the price. Ski idol Pirmin Zurbriggen recounts one episode in the talk "Legends for eternity" on blue. In Calgary, at the 1988 Olympic Games, the ski cracks indulged in one of their favorite activities: They played soccer. And they did so as often as they could. "We always played football, before every training session, for half an hour for sure. It was a must," says Zurbriggen and laughs. And they did so with the necessary ambition. "We also wanted to win."
"It was just about possible..."
In Calgary, Zurbriggen and his teammates had a particularly original idea: they kicked on an ice field. "We wanted to train our balance on ice, the movements, the control," explains Zurbriggen. And all this three days before an Olympic competition. What had to happen, happened: Paul Accola, who was sprinting towards Zurbriggen, lost his balance - and thundered into Zurbriggen's calf. "Päuli didn't mean to do that on purpose." It hurt all the same. Zurbriggen only recovered just in time thanks to excellent medical care. "It was just about possible. But it was very close."
Zurbriggen shakes his head. "The whole thing really happened out of naive stupidity. Today you'd just call it unprofessional to play football on an ice rink before the Olympics," he says. And yet: kicking the ball around was always fun. "I miss that a bit today, the polysporty aspect. As professional athletes, we wanted to do as much as possible. Today, athletes are no longer allowed to do that - for fear that something might happen."
Today's athletes are reminded of this: Paul Accola has long since stopped training.
