A guilty conscience after Olympic gold Vreni Schneider: "She sat there like a heap of misery - I felt so sorry for her"
In 1988 in Calgary, Vreni Schneider - the "brave little tailor" in her head - skied to her first Olympic gold medal. At the finish line, she was plagued by a guilty conscience, says "Gold-Vreni" and reveals why.
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- In the Olympic talk "Legends for eternity", Vreni Schneider remembers Calgary 1988 and her first Olympic gold medal.
- "Gold Vreni" reveals why she had a guilty conscience at the finish line and why she wanted to avoid the Spaniard Blanca Fernandez Ochoa. "Blanca was the best that day and then she sits there on the sidelines like a pile of misery."
- Fernandez Ochoa retired voluntarily in 2019 at the age of 56. "I looked up to Blanca. She was a dream girl."
It was close at the end. Vreni Schneider, the future double Olympic champion from Calgary 1988, almost missed the Games in Canada. "I was always eliminated in the World Cup races before that," she recalls in the talk "Legends for eternity". "I often skied headlessly. Sometimes I was upside down in the snow after six gates."
It wasn't until the weekend before the start of the Games in Saas-Fee that she secured her place in the Olympic squad - with two second places in the giant and slalom. Schneider felt better after arriving in Canada. "I knew that I was actually in great shape," she says.
Actually! Because she was also eliminated in the combined - after being on course for a medal. However, she retained her optimism. This was even easier for her in earlier years of her career. Schneider was 23 years old at the time. "That was also youthful recklessness. I was fascinated by the Olympics and grateful that I was allowed to go at all," she says.
"I said to myself: 'Schneiderlein, pull yourself together!"
Then her big moment came in the giant slalom for the first time at the Olympic Games. She is in fifth place at the break; Blanca Fernandez Ochoa is clearly in the lead. Schneider turns up the heat in the second run. Without knowing how well she was skiing.
"It turned nonsensically, it was aggressive snow and so slow. I thought I was almost standing still," says Schneider. "Then I said to myself: 'brave little Schneider, pull yourself together! Come on now. You have to push." Nevertheless, she is not thinking about gold. "I didn't have a good feeling when I crossed the finish line. Only then did I realize that the others were also having problems."
The anxious wait for the competition begins. Maria Walliser, Catherine Quittet from France and Małgorzata Mogore-Tlałka are slower. Then Fernandez Ochoa. "It was clear to me that she would win gold," says Schneider. "She also got off to a great start. But then there was a crash." Fernandez Ochoa fails, Schneider remains on the throne.
"Blanca was a dream girl"
An Olympic champion with a guilty conscience! "Yes, Blanca was devastated. She was clearly the best skier." Schneider's unease went so far that she wanted to avoid the Spaniard in the finish area. "I had to go to a TV interview. She was sitting there, leaning against a railing, like a heap of misery. And I would have had to go right past her. I wanted to go around the outside."
Her plan failed - Fernandez Ochoa spotted the Swiss winner. "She saw me, we made eye contact. Then she came up to me and she knew exactly what I was thinking: 'I'm sorry, that can't be true'." Fernandez Ochoa congratulates fairly.
That was typical of the time, says Schneider. "We were a big ski family. Great women, sorry: women (laughs). We traveled around the world together." Everyone wanted to win, but also accepted defeat. "We had honest respect for each other." Typical of Schneider herself, a good relationship with her competitors is always important to her.
And Fernandez Ochoa? "She was a dream girl anyway. Just the way she conducted herself. We all got on well with her." Schneider also admired the Spaniard, who voluntarily retired in 2019 at the age of 56, because of her class. "I looked up to Blanca."
