
In an interview, Lara Gut-Behrami looks back on the season that has just ended, which was characterized by historic successes, but also by personal challenges and difficult moments.
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- Lara Gut-Behrami looks back on an outstanding season in which she won her sixth super-G globe, despite initial difficulties and a period of uncertainty.
- After a difficult start to the season with many doubts, the skier from Ticino has regained her joy of skiing.
- Although she has achieved major goals, the 34-year-old puts the importance of numbers into perspective and emphasizes that success is not always synonymous with personal well-being.
For Lara Gut-Behrami, the giant slalom triumph in Sun Valley last Thursday marked the end of a season in which she achieved historic milestones. Among other things, Gut-Behrami won her sixth super-G globe, something no one had ever achieved before.
Despite a difficult start to the season and the mental difficulties that tested the Ticino native, she was able to regain her joy and realized from November onwards that she still has the passion and strength to compete at the highest level.
"It was a completely different start to the season than usual. I've always felt good in Sölden, but for the first time I had very strange feelings that I didn't know," Lara Gut-Behrami tells "RSI" in an interview.
"I didn't know if I would continue"
The Ticino native also admits that she feared she had made the wrong decision when she did not retire last summer. "The first feeling was that maybe it was a mistake to continue. In the summer, I thought I still had the desire, but when it was time to start racing, I ran out of desire," says Gut-Behrami.
He continues: "Skiing is one thing, but racing brings excitement, pressure and the serenity of life depends on a few tenths of a second every weekend. I saw absolutely no point in it, it was a difficult time, I didn't know whether I would carry on or stop."
At the end of November, however, Gut-Behrami found the right answers in Killington. She realized that she still wanted to take part in races, also thanks to her regained health.
"Success is not always synonymous with well-being"
The 33-year-old doesn't attach too much importance to the historic record of six super-G globes, because "numbers are something you have to put into perspective. They are there to be surpassed, to raise the bar higher and higher. There were athletes before me who won much more than me, and there will be many more in the future.
Of course, records are important goals, says Gut-Behrami. But: "What has stayed with me most from this day is the good feeling of being happy at this moment, without having to think about yesterday or tomorrow. Because success is not always synonymous with a good feeling."
On the road without a main sponsor
The 48-time World Cup winner also talks about sponsorship money. The Ticino native was the best-known advertising face of chocolate brand Camille Bloch for around 12 years before the collaboration ended last summer.
"I worked with Ragusa for more than a decade. It has been an incredible journey, we have both benefited from many things. Skiing is my profession, so I also earn my living thanks to the sponsors, but it's important to know at what price you do these things and why you do them," says Gut-Behrami when asked about this.
In the past World Cup winter, she was without a main sponsor and now explains: "I've learned that it's important to ask yourself the question: Why, how and with whom am I doing this? As an athlete, you often only look at the zeros in the contract instead of asking yourself whether it makes sense."