Marc Girardelli is standing among friends, fans, and sponsors at the Bansko races. He is in town as the Bansko Ambassador. The Austrian native from the Vorarlberg Alps is a five-time World Cup overall champion, and his goal as Ambassador is to show that no matter what nationality you are, it is important to support ski racing across the world. He wants to grow ski racing, especially into Eastern Europe, places like Bulgaria—so the sport doesn't “shrink,” he says.

Girardelli is a ski racing icon, at age 8 he won the regional championships in slalom and at 12 the first Youths' Grand Prix championship, and at 14, he competed in his first FIS World Cup. At 18, he was a runner-up in the Wengen World Cup.  At 20, he won his first World Cup in slalom. His resume reads like a statistics text book: three-time downhill champion, nine-time super G champion, seven-time GS champion, 16-time slalom champion, plus three World Championship medals and two Olympic medals. From 1985 to 1993, he secured five overall championship titles—more than any other professional ski racer to date.

While chatting about how things have changed since his competition days, he was sporting his own Girardelli outerwear brand, while watching the ski races out of the corner of his eye. He took a moment to talk with FISAlpine.com:

FISAlpine.com: First off, what do you think of Austrian phenom, Marcel Hirscher?

Marc Girardelli: For the moment for sure, he is the best skier at least from the technical side. It's interesting, he has a very aggressive technique. He has similarity with Jean-Baptiste Grange when he skied so strong a few years ago. You know in skiing it can change, but now he is on the top and has a chance to win the World Cup.

FIS: What do you think of the Austrian team as a whole? Last week, 20-year-old Marcel Mathis got his first career podium.

MG: It was a long time awaited for a young guy from Austria besides Marcel Hirscher to come along, finally a guy from my hometown region could make a podium after many many years. Otherwise, in Austria there are only older racers. But I think Marcel is the first after many many years, and he might have a long future in front of him.

FIS: What is your role in Bansko?

MG: I am an ambassador for the country, for the ski areas, for the owners of the ski resorts—they are fascinating skiers, wherever they go, they love skiing. I think it is my vision to transport skiing, which I love, to other resorts. If it's stuck in Austria, Germany, Switzerland, it's only a little sport. I feel like it's very important to transport skiing to eastern countries—to Asia, to South America, to Australia, but mainly eastern Europe is a target for the future. The FIS should be very aware that the future markets are in the eastern countries otherwise skiing will shrink quite heavy.

FIS: What has changed the most in ski racing since you competed?

MG: The only thing in ski racing that has changed is the carving ski. With the carving ski, it was about 12 years ago that the new type of ski came on the market. The whole thing about racing changed completely. The technique of the skiers, the course preparation—everything changed from one year to the other. It was such a big progress in technology, every little part of skiing changed. Beginners learn skiing in two hours despite two weeks of ski teaching in any resort in the world. Plus, ski racing is so much faster than 10 to 15 years ago. The racers have to have more physical abilities to keep pressure on these skis when they make the turns.

FIS: Do you think it's harder for the older racers to adapt to all the changes, and easier for younger racers?

MG: It seems like the opposite. When I was young, 18 to 20 years of age was the normal age when you come into the World Cup and start winning races. Now at 22 years of age, it is still young to be at the top of the World Cup. People like Didier Cuche, like Kostelic, they are past 30 years of age. People like Stenmark, like me, they quit when they were in the 30s. At least in four or five years, everything became a little bit older. I think it might be because of the change in physical ability. You need to have physical ability to keep enormous tension in the race whether slalom or downhill. That might be the reason racers that are 17, 18, 19 are not in the physical situation that they can race at the top level.

FIS: What else has changed?

MG: From the racing side, you cannot make much different. Gunter Hujara, the FIS Race Chief, has done a good job from the race side with security, piste preparation, all the things around it. But what is able to improve is the social effects around the race. Races like Kitzbuhel, Bansko, Schladming, Adelboden or Wengen—they make it really perfect. But other resorts have to take an example from these resorts to make the social effect better, that the people, the industry, the economy can come to the race to watch the race, to have society events with the racers so they can get to know the people, the athletes, because that is very important that the athletes get together with the economy. Only in this way can skiing grow. If the racers vanish after the prize-giving ceremony, that is not the case. It's not all about ski racing. It's about the social effects around the race. You can see it in Formula One, you can see it in tennis and golf. In social, skiing has to make up a lot of terrain in competition to tennis, golf, or other sports. That's a big step we have to make up in the future.

By Vanessa Pierce
FISalpine.com
Monday 27 February 2012