Linus Straßer is at his best when he only has his skiing and the mountain on his mind.
Photo: image/Eibner
It was a few days ago that Linus Straßer made an appearance again – not between slalom poles, but on social media. And the topic wasn’t a sporting event either, it was about something private. The ski racer from TSV 1860 Munich has just become the father of a daughter. “Welcome, little mouse,” he wrote under a photo that showed him smiling happily with the newborn in his arms.
But he wasn’t able to spend much time with his family, because shortly after the birth he had to pack his bag again to tackle his next job project: the night slalom this Thursday in Madonna di Campiglio. Straßer still has a score to settle with the Canalone Miramonti slope. His trainer Christian Schwaiger would have liked to see the 30-year-old start in both giant slalom races in Alta Badia on Sunday and Monday, but you have to set priorities.
However, Schwaiger can be sure that Straßer will not normally skip further races. “He’s an extreme professional,” says the head coach of the German men. And Straßer still has a lot planned. The victories in Zagreb 2021 and Schladming in January this year should not be the last of his career. The slalom start this winter in Val d’Isere with 13th place does not sound great at first. But the situation for him, waiting for the child, wasn’t that easy, says Schwaiger: “I know what Linus can do, and I’m not worried about that either.”
Especially since Linus Straßer is not known as an early starter in the winter anyway. Last year, weakened by an infection in the first slalom of the season, he did not qualify for the second round and was eliminated in Madonna di Campiglio after just five goals. For him, winter really only began in the new year – with two third places and victory in Schladming. In the end he was fifth in the overall slalom ranking and was better than ever. The previous season had also gotten off to a slow start, before he carved his first World Cup win in early January.
And yet the two most successful years so far could not be compared. After the premiere success in Zagreb and the subsequent second place in Adelboden, he might have put himself under a little too much pressure, expected too much of himself. One setback followed the other, the good form was gone at the World Championships in Cortina d’Ampezzo. Last winter he was able to keep up the January level and achieved four top ten results. The fact that it wasn’t enough to win a medal at the Olympic Winter Games in Beijing, but only seventh place, is also due to the level of performance in the slalom. Last season there were eight different winners in ten goal runs.
The most difficult thing is “to be consistently good,” he said recently. Those who have reached the top often want to go one better, “do something very special” and “that’s the worst thing there is”. The art, he says, »lies in the simplicity«.
Strasser knows what he’s talking about. When he achieved a remarkable fifth place in Schladming in his seventh World Cup slalom almost eight years ago, he was considered the new German slalom star, developing in the shadow of Felix Neureuther and Fritz Dopfer, who were among the best in the world at the time, and in whose footsteps should be followed. But things turned out differently. The star Strasser went out quickly. The highly talented man had to struggle with this rapid rise and his risky driving style, which Schwaiger once described as a “ticking time bomb” because the man from Munich was able to take extremely fast turns, but was always in danger of being eliminated. At that time he always wanted to do better in the race than in training – and failed.
It was a long maturing process to understand that – and to implement it. Now when he’s running, he’s trying “to have only me, my skiing and the mountain on my mind.” Sometimes it works perfectly, sometimes not quite. It’s important to “stay true to yourself,” to trust yourself, he says. Straßer has recognized that it is better to listen to yourself more than to others. “It’s not very useful when people tell you what to do or how to do it,” he says. “You have to find your own way.”
And that means taking a step back, not risking everything, like last time in Val d’Isere, where he was almost always eliminated or missed the second half until this season. “I wanted to make peace with the Hang,” he said afterwards. He has reached the first milestone of the season. Maybe he can now do the second thing: settle the outstanding score in Madonna.
