Sweden's Anja Pärson can now be considered as the ‘dean' of the women's World Cup tour. She entered the tour at the age of 16 in March 1998 at the finals in Crans-Montana after clinching one of her numerous gold medals at the FIS Junior Worlds. The now 29-year-old champion from Taernaby is the most successful active racer with her forty World Cup wins in all events, her seven FIS gold medals, her Olympic title in slalom and her two overall World Cup titles.

Last season was quite tough for Anja who failed to capture a medal at the 2009 FIS World Championships in Val d'Isère and only celebrated two victories on the circuit, often crashing on her way to victory while trying hard to score ‘big' World Cup points. She surely expected more than ‘only' winning the super combined crystal globe and finishing 3rd in the final overall rankings behind Lindsey Vonn and Maria Riesch.

The Scandinavian aims for revenge this winter - maybe her very last in case she feels ready to leave next spring. Yet for the moment, it's not the time to speak with her about ending her career on ‘unfinished' business - in this case a third overall title!

"I know Swedish newspapers have been writing about this, but I have not taken my decision in so far as I wish to remain fully focused on the current season," she told reporters earlier this week. "I have been training hard this summer, especially in giant slalom, and I really hope it will pay off!"

Great skiing at Lake Louise

Like all her colleagues, Pärson was enjoying her first day of training at Lake Louise on the ‘Men's Olympic Run' covered with fresh and crispy snow. The sun was shining on a blue sky - just a perfect day for skiing!

"I just love it. It's perfect weather now, I wish I could run it a few more times today, I have not trained so much downhill this summer and the conditions are superb," she said afterwards.

"It's important for the moral to have such a day after that tough slalom at Aspen where it was pretty brutal going down that icy slope. It's great to come here to Lake Louise enjoy the sun shine and the fresh soft snow. I'm really loving any moment of what I have been doing today."

"I am happy and doing my best to have fun for the moment as I know this weekend is really important for me. I have to be really sure I can do my best to score as many points as possible, hopefully being on the podium a few times this weekend, not losing too many points on the other contenders."

A strong leader in the technical events along Janica Kostelic with whom she shared all the gold medals at the 2005 Worlds at Santa Caterina, Anja Pärson has been more successful recently in the speed events after discovering the spills and thrills of downhill during the 2003/2004 season

An important year for Anja Pärson

Yet she aims to find back her former rhythm in slalom and giant slalom and remain competitive at the top level. "I know it's a very important year for me, and even though I'm having fun I don't want to forget about my big goals here," she added. "Compared to the past it's surely harder for me nowadays, it's harder to keep up that aggressiveness that I used to have when I was younger, but in a way I enjoy more the atmosphere in the team and my training than earlier."

"I returned to the team, the girls and myself are having a great time together. I'm loving any moment I'm skiing with them, but in the race I'm trying hard to psyche myself up and be more aggressive, like I was five or six years ago."

"Last year was just crazy and frustrating, I was often skiing very fast and leading by a second when suddenly some stupid mistake happened and I lost everything. We have been training a lot of giant slalom this summer, mostly to see if my movement can be a little quicker, and I also checked with my coaches about having a higher line and so on to have more safety in my turns than last year."

"I set a high goal for me this year and if I want to win again the overall World Cup I have to take everyday as if it would be my last day and do everything I can to score a maximum of points."

A hard worker

"The way the World Cup is now with so many top class skiers who don't give away anything I have to raise my level, be very focused and better than I was the last couple of years. Some of my top rivals are also skiing on the same skis, which doesn't make things easier. It seems that they are again very fast here."

Pärson is considered as one of the hardest working athletes among the elite - spending hundreds of hours in the gym lifting weights and on the slope testing her equipment. There is only little time left for relaxing and enjoying life away from the mountains.

"Every year, I'm telling myself to ski less and take off some time for me, but in fact every year I'm skiing more and pushing myself harder," she explains. "Maybe that's why I'm starting to think about if this could be my last season or not, I really want to start thinking about my life after ski racing."

"The older you get the harder it is to avoid all what's around you, I have been focusing hard on skiing but I realize there are many things around skiing too, after a while it's more difficult to fully focus and be an egocentric person- That's why I think I'm approaching the end of my career, maybe one or two more years."

"That's why I'm looking forward to next spring at Taernaby. I told my father not to schedule anything in April. I wish to relax there with my friends and family, I have a lot to do there at that time. I bought myself a new powerful skidoo, so I have a lot of exciting things to do after the season ends."

"Last fall I helped put together a herd of reindeers with some friends. It was so great to be out there early in the morning when the sun started to rise. Fortunately, there are so many nice things to do besides ski racing."

Patrick Lang
FISalpine.com
Thursday 3 December 2009