Ski star on the development process Gut-Behrami: "I no longer think the whole world is against me"

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4.2.2025

Lara Gut-Behrami is ready for the World Championships in Saalbach-Hinterglemm.
Lara Gut-Behrami is ready for the World Championships in Saalbach-Hinterglemm.
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Lara Gut-Behrami is preparing for her ninth and most likely last World Championships. The skier from Ticino wants to add to her medal collection in Saalbach-Hinterglemm.

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  • Eight-time World Championship medal winner Lara Gut-Behrami will be competing in her ninth and most likely last World Championships in Saalbach-Hinterglemm.
  • After a minor knee injury in September, the Ticino native has regained her confidence with her latest victory in Garmisch and has positioned herself as one of the favorites for the super-G on February 6.
  • In an interview with RSI, the 33-year-old explains how difficulties and injuries have influenced her development.

Lara Gut-Behrami is preparing for her ninth World Championships in her career. With 8 World Championship medals already in her trophy cabinet (2 x gold, 3 x silver and 3 x bronze), the Ticino native will be trying to add more in Saalbach-Hinterglemm.

The 33-year-old will have her first big chance in the super-G on February 6. The Italian Marta Bassino won in Méribel in 2023. After her victory in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Gut-Behrami is one of the hot contenders for victory.

In an interview with "RSI", she analyzed her season so far. "The problem in September not only took away my physical confidence, but also my mental strength (Gut-Behrami was hit on the left knee, editor's note). It was very difficult for me to block everything out and be fast. It was a development process in which I slowly found confidence bit by bit and improved until I arrived in Garmisch and did everything right."

"Everything I've experienced in my career has fortunately allowed me to learn," Gut-Behrami continues: "Things could also have gone great at the World Championships in Val-d'Isère (2009, editor's note), but then things happened that weren't easy. I was already so tired at the start of the downhill - where I won another medal - that I wanted to stop at the end of the season."

She also gave an insight into her early years as a professional, when not everything went as she would have liked. "I was immature, I had only just started. A thousand things happened to me, I moped around as a teenager, sulked, argued with everyone and thought the world was out to get me. After all, everything happens very quickly in sport, so it's always a process in a career to take the time to reflect and mature."

"Now I'm more aware," explains the Ticino native, "I know what I want and what I don't want - and I also have more opportunities to express myself without having to start a war or think that the whole world is against me."

«Many athletes focus more on how they can sell their product, how they can be perceived as beautiful people in public, than on showing themselves as they really are.»

Lara Gut-Behrami

In addition to numerous medals, there have also been low blows at world championships - for example, Gut-Behrami tore her cruciate ligament while warming up before the combined slalom in St. Moritz in 2017.

"I wasn't feeling well in St. Moritz. I hid everything with a smile and pretended to feel strong. Thanks to the injury, I've grown and learned a lot - including how to take the pressure off myself and be aware that every race only counts on that day."

With a ninth place in the downhill, a sixth in the super-G and a fourth in the giant slalom, the last World Championships in Courchevel/Méribel in 2023 left such a bitter taste in her mouth that she thought about ending her career at the time. Instead, thanks in part to this experience, she found the strength to carry on positively.

"After fourth place in the giant slalom in Méribel, I felt a void that wasn't just down to the result. That's why I'm confident that the upcoming World Championships are not just about medals, but also about ending a journey in a meaningful way," summarized the second most successful Swiss woman in World Cup history (Lara Gut-Behrami 46 victories, Vreni Schneider 55).