I haven’t felt as good on skis as I did in Kitzbühel for two years. The equipment was spot on, and despite all the pressure around Olympic qualification I finished fourth – my best result of the season.

There were signs of an upward trend in the races before, too, and in Kitzbühel it all clicked. Unfortunately corona slowed me down, and I couldn’t race in Schladming to build on that momentum. Instead of going to Styria, I went home. I felt fine, just a tiny bit fluey. The ski circus has a watertight testing system: you have to take a PCR test before a race and a rapid test before every trip. At the moment you’re almost more nervous about the test results than about the races themselves. I’ve now tested negative, and being vaccinated and recovered I should be safe for a while. The timing was reasonably OK, as it leaves a little more time to prepare for the Olympic Games. Now it’s off to China.

We don’t really know what to expect there. Of course you don’t associate Beijing with skiing. We assume conditions will be similar to Pyeongchang. Right now there’s a huge amount of paperwork to deal with. But I think things will be more relaxed in China itself – after all, the Olympic village will probably be one of the safest places in the world when it comes to the pandemic. Still, it’s a bit of a journey into the unknown. Logistically it’s a huge effort. Everyone has to take their own luggage and equipment on the charter plane, because only a few airlines are currently allowed to fly to China. The whole ÖSV team is working at the limit.
Nevertheless, I have a good feeling. As you know, I usually stay relaxed and take things as they come. I generally don’t have expectations, because they can only be disappointed. I’ve been able to prepare physically for the big event in peace and still have two or three days of skiing in Austria to do. One challenge will certainly be that in China we’ll ski exclusively on artificial snow. We rarely, if ever, have that – it’s a bit of new territory for us.

I’ll keep you posted – you keep your fingers crossed for me.
Yours, Michi