Peter Barandun sees more than the alpine skiers

Peter Barandun, you have been President of Swiss-Ski since October. How do you feel about the Alpine season so far?

"The interim results are positive. The men are doing very well, the women are doing well, especially in the technical disciplines, with Camille Rast and Wendy Holdener and the youngsters who are coming up behind them; I'm satisfied."

You went from being an electrician to CEO and head of the Electrolux company and President of Swiss-Ski. How did you manage that?

"I ask myself that. I'm someone who looks forward and hardly ever looks far back. If you expected someone to do it like that... no, that would be too much. It would all be too much!"

It's hard to say that it just happened.

"There was always a professional ambition, as well as a willingness to seize opportunities. During my training as an electrician, the goal was to become a chief electrician or, in the best case, to take the master craftsman's examination. I always liked to take on responsibility and organized a lot of things, be it the Grümpel tournament in my home village in Präz. When I was 16 years old, no one at the Heinzenberg ski club wanted to run the JO and I had just stopped racing, I did that too. In the very first year, the number of members rose from 25 to 50 and it continued like that."

Later, you lived with your wife and ski-mad children in Einsiedeln, where you founded the Hoch-Ybrig regional performance center, led the initially small group to success and met Urs Lehmann, who then brought you to Swiss-Ski. What drives you in your commitment to skiing?

"I've always had a huge passion for skiing and the mountains. My room was full of posters of Bernhard Russi, Franz Klammer and Ingemar Stenmark. Klammer was my number 1, and Stenmark too, actually. They had a charisma beyond the borders like Marco Odermatt does today. I worked so much overtime in the summer that I was able to give ski lessons for most of the winter. It helped that I had such a good teacher. As he told me later, he knew that I often skipped school. Because I was still good, he let me do it."

What does sport teach you about life?

"Sport teaches you how to deal with all classes of people. It teaches you to be humble, shows you that standing still is a step backwards, that doing as much as the others is not enough to get to the top of the world. And sport means emotions. Sport moves and brings joy. Success is achieved and celebrated in sport - something that is neglected in the professional world."

You yourself stopped skiing at an early age. Why was that?

"Money was tight at home. But that's no excuse, the others were certainly better. None of the people from Graubünden my age, who were better back then, made it into the top squads. That only changed again with the Hangls from Samnaun."

You were never tied to one place along the way. Wherever an opportunity presented itself, you went.

"I can feel at home in a new place relatively quickly. I think that's because I'm good with everyone, regardless of hierarchical level. However, I still feel most comfortable around people who are where I come from, with both feet on the ground. I was never attracted to the carpeted floor. Until 1976, I grew up with an outhouse that you had to leave the house for. No hot water and no heating, in a farming village with 170 inhabitants. We didn't have a car, I never went on vacation until I was 16, and I never got to know Coca-Cola. Nevertheless, I have very fond memories of that time, of how we, girls and boys, used to meet and play in the 'square' - fangis, hide-and-seek, all that, like in a movie from the old days. In summer we played football, albeit without a flat field, in winter we slalomed on a slope next to the school, about ten seconds a run, until it was dark and we went home to help."

The conversation is briefly interrupted to make an appointment with a photographer the next day. "From 7.00 a.m. is good for me," says Barandun, before they agree on 9.00 a.m.

Being ready for a photo shoot at 7.00 a.m. speaks volumes for your work ethic.

"I'm always early. My day starts at about half past five and ends at nine or ten in the evening."

You are the boss of around 1,000 employees, hold several positions on the Board of Directors, have been on the Swiss-Ski Executive Committee since 2012 and are now the President. How do you juggle everything?

"I'm good at letting go and trusting people. That is certainly my strength. Many people make the mistake of focusing everything on themselves. That's impossible. I make sure I have the best people around me. And above all, my wife is there to support me. My whole life wouldn't be possible without her support."

As President of Swiss-Ski, you could say that you've cast yourself into a net. The association has never been in such a good position.

"My answer to that is: it's not a sure-fire success! The Austrians were number 1 for decades, and then suddenly they weren't. It can happen that quickly. When I think back to our crisis in 2013, we have developed and achieved a lot together since then."

Where do you still see potential at Swiss-Ski?

"Everyone always talks about alpine skiing, but we also have many other cool disciplines. It was wonderful to see how we were able to attract 85,000 spectators to the Biathlon World Championships in Lenzerheide last year. This underlines the fact that there is a lot of potential for development in the other disciplines. If we want to continue to grow and be among the world leaders in as many sports as possible, then more needs to happen in the commercial sector. It's no longer enough to write on clothes and hang up advertising boards like we used to."

The fact that you mention the other disciplines alongside alpine skiing should please many winter sports enthusiasts. The others often have the feeling that they are overshadowed by alpine skiing.

"That has changed a little for us. But we can't take anything away from the alpines. If we did, it would almost certainly be less successful there. We invest a lot in the Alps, but we also get a lot back. They are the driving force. We have to manage to generate more capital."