Watching Lara Gut move around the athlete’s cafeteria in Lake Louise earlier this season was almost like watching a tennis match. A cosmopolitan 19-year-old bundle of multilingual energy, Gut was zipping and bouncing from table to table chatting and giggling with racers and coaches in at least four different languages (that’s Italian, French, German and English if you are counting, and she also apparently is a whiz at Spanish too!).

Lara Gut during Audi FIS Alpine Ski World Cup Bansko 2009, foto © SKI.BG

A ski prodigy from a very young age, Gut’s list of accomplishments is very impressive and ever expanding. With a couple of World Cup victories and two World Championship silver medals (silvers in Downhill and Combined at the 2009 Worlds in Val d’Isere, France) under her belt already, Gut has achieved success other racers can only dream of - and she’s not even 20!

Sidelined by a dislocated hip for the entire 2009/2010 World Cup campaign, Gut is back to her winning ways on the World Cup tour this season, with two third place finishes (Val d’Isere DH and Cortina Super-G) and a Super-G victory in Zauchensee, Austria.

She sat down with me recently for a quick chat to answer a few questions...

MM: At 16 you had a World Cup 3rd place. At 17 you had your first World Cup victory and two World Championship silvers, what are some of your upcoming goals?

LG: I don’t know, right now I’m just enjoying skiing and I’m just coming back from an injury so my first goal is to be back where I was two years ago, and it’s not easy because use two years ago everything came so easy. I’m just going to try to do that. I just want to keep having fun and to win some more.

MM: When you dislocated your hip in September 2009, what’s the first thing that came to mind?

LG: I didn’t even know that I dislocated my hip. When I went to the hospital they told me it was dislocated and it was okay. When they said it was okay I asked them if I could go skiing right away and they said no, and that I’d have to take 3 or 4 months off. At the beginning I didn’t realize what it would be like because I’d never stopped skiing before so it was strange because I couldn’t walk and had to wait seven weeks. It wasn’t so easy but when I think back now it (recovery) was fast, faster than I imagined.

MM: Were you sad that you missed the Olympics?

LG: I’ve never been to the Olympics so I don’t know what I missed. It wasn’t that hard to miss the Olympics, but it was hard to not race all winter, that was really hard for me.

MM: You’re kind of an alpine racing Hannah Montana (the character Miley Cyrus plays on the Disney television program) in that you lead a kind of double life - a teenager on one hand and a very adult ski racer on the other. What is life like for you?

LG: I’m always blonde (she says with a laugh) unlike Miley Cyrus! I have this side when I’m skiing where people think I’m like a 30-year-old because I look experienced but on the other side I’m still studying, I’m not doing it like everyone my age because I’m not going to school, I study when I can, when I’m flying, or traveling or waiting for a race. I listen to Shakira and other artists like normal people my age do. When I’m home I have parties with my friends, I’m a normal person but sometimes like Hanna Montana I have this other life.

MM: In your life outside ski racing are you still a regular teenager?

LG: Yes, sure. I think all athletes are like children because when we are skiing we are having fun. Sure it’s our job and we’re pushing hard, but we have fun. I think everybody here (on the World Cup) is like a little kid. I’m still a teenager, and sometimes an adult, but when I’m skiing I’m like a child.

MM: Hannah Montana was first on television five years ago when you were just 14, did you watch it growing up?

LG: No I didn’t watch Hannah Montana and I don’t watch much TV except for Grey’s Anatomy, I always watch Grey’s Anatomy.

MM: A lot of your young fans are curious about what you’re into, like your favourite kind of music. What are three songs you listen to a lot these days?

LG: At the moment I’m listening to ‘Loca” from Shakira and I love “The Wind Blows” by The All American Rejects and just about anything from David Guetta, I like his music a lot.

MM: Do you have an all-time favourite musical artist?

LG: One of my favourites is of course Shakira, and of course it’s something different but I also love some songs by The Beatles. I’m not only into Dance or Pop, I like everything.

MM: Have you ever seen Shakira live in concert?

LG: No I’ve had the possibility. I’ve been to a Zucchero concert, it was really something. But I have time, I’m young, I will go.

MM: Okay, how about a girl’s second best friend outside of diamonds, shoes - what do you prefer to wear heels or flats?

LG: I can’t wear heels!(she laughs). Heels would be good for me because I’m so tall (she says sarcastically) but with flats I can run, and with heels I can’t, so I think it’s better for me when I wear something flat.

MM: Do you have a favourite fashion designer?

LG: No I don’t. When I’m home I like to wear a t-shirt and training pants.

MM: What are some of your favourite stops on The World Cup tour?

LG: For GS I like Soldeu in Andorra and Soelden, Austria. Downhill, I like Altenmarkt, Austria and Val d’Isere, France. I like St. Moritz too.

MM: Did you have any favourite skiers growing up?

LG: I trained since I was ten with Maria Jose Rienda Contreras, so she was my favourite racer growing up because she’s amazing as an athlete, and also as a person. I like Renate Goetschl too, I don’t know how to explain it, she’s amazing and I like to talk to her, we’re still in contact now. Guys, I don’t know, Max Blardone, he’s helped me a lot the last couple of years. And Bode Miller of course, he’s not an athlete, he’s in another world. It’s amazing to watch what he does and what he says, and he’s interesting to talk to.

MM: So we can say you’re a Bode Miller fan?

LG: Yah, we can say that (she says with a giggle).

By Michael Mastarciyan
FISalpine.com
Friday 11 February 2011