For Tina Maze, life without snow is “boring”. Six years after leaving the ski slopes, the Slovenian muse is still very active in the sport. “Once an athlete, always an athlete. I need action to feel alive, but I need sport to feel good. I don’t exercise with the same intensity, but I still ski a lot. Because life without snow is. .. boring,” he told DN, about the challenge proposed by Eurosportto comment on the Alpine World Ski Championships, which take place in St Moritzin Switzerland until the 19th.
She left the high league in 2016, two years after becoming Olympic champion (Sochi 2014) and one year after becoming world champion (). He said he didn’t have the energy to continue. “It wasn’t just a mental problem, it was also a physical problem. I was having trouble getting good results, so I decided to stop for a year and then realized it was time to stop. It took me a while to get the but I think it was the right decision, maybe I could have stopped earlier because the last three years have been really hard for me, but if I had stopped in 2012 or 2013 I wouldn’t have won two gold medals. “explained the Slovenian, owner of four Olympic medals and four world titles.
She was the first athlete to win an Olympic medal (silver in Vancouver 2010) and the first Olympic champion (Sochi 2014) from Slovenia. After arriving on Olympus, he posed for a photo in a sweater with the following message written on it: Keep calm, because I am the queen (Keep calm because I am the queen). That’s why he says today that if an Olympic medal is good, two [ouro no slalom gigante e prata em downhill em Sochi] they are much better, but none beat the greatest medal life has given her: her daughter.
Before Mikaela Shiffrin and Lindsey Vonn appeared, Tina Maze ruled. Like the North Americans, the Slovenian also stood out for her physical beauty, in addition to the trophies won. That was a burden and a blessing. “In the beginning, many saw beauty and no talent and that bothered me a bit, but then I realized that if you have both and can use it, it’s better. If you can get the most out of hard work by having a good image, the better. I like athletes who manage to express themselves and manage to go deep. People like good-looking, friendly athletes, but who can ski well and are not superficial,” he told DN.
Born in 1983 in Slovenj Gradec, where “there was nothing to do but ski”, Tina Maze (39 years old) started skiing at the age of three and competed in international competitions at the age of 16. slalom giant and Super-G, but later became versatile, competing in both technical and sprint events. In 2015, he stole the spotlight from rival Lindsey Vonn by winning the world title downhill on North American soil, in what would be the farewell to the World Cups and the ski slopes.
Today, she is considered by many to be Slovenia’s greatest athlete ever. She says she is “handling it very well” despite being synonymous with some restrictions when she is in the country where she was born and that her tourism ambassador has mentioned: “I don’t like to spend a lot of time in to spend in Slovenia because I can’t go unnoticed, people often look, they know who I am, but they also don’t know what to do and sometimes it gets embarrassing, but I always try to be available for autographs, selfies, etc. “
The Slovenian is back in Switzerland, where she experienced a funny episode during a race in 2012. The Swiss Ski Federation accused her of wearing illegal underwear and claimed they had too much plastic, which gave her an aerodynamic advantage. “Now you can laugh”, but at the time, the International Ski Federation even confiscated the controversial underwear for aerodynamic analysis. The result was negative, but just in case the entity banned the material.
So during a fitting, she opened her suit and showed her bra with a message written in marker that read “it’s none of your business” – as a form of protest: “It was a way of saying that the girl from Slovenia would not shut up and allow such a grotesque intrusion.” And also a way of saying to other athletes that they can’t be successful if they’re always nice: “I had to change my way of dealing with the media and showing who I was and what I thought and that’s how I got also got more attention for me. The reaction was huge.”
Maze guarantees she lives well with the role of commentator on the Eurosport: “I always try to put myself in the role of others. I know very well what an athlete feels before, during and after a competition. This challenge somehow keeps me close to the skiing family. Having conversations with athletes is good because they feel comfortable talking to someone who’s been in their shoes, they know what I’ve done and they recognize my opinion. It’s a win-win situation and good for everyone.”
Music is another great passion of Tina Maze, who has recorded albums. the single My way is my decision is a hit in Slovenia, with thousands of views.
Source: DN
