Simon Ammann: soaring into the history books: Switzerland's Simon Ammann set ski jumping records and earned his place in his sport's history, after winning a further set of Olympic gold medals at the Vancouver games in February--doubling his overall Olympics gold tally. Swiss News talks to the champion as he prepares for the new winter season.
| Auteur | Hancock, Julia |
| Fonction | Cover story |
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Einsiedeln is located southeast of Zurich and serves as the training camp for the Swiss national ski jumping team. The view from the top of the ski-jump--looking out over the mountainous landscape below--is amazing, despite the heavy rain on the day of my visit. However, when you glance directly down the steep tracks leading to the lift-off point, and the distant landing field, it's enough to make your legs shake.
For Simon Ammann, this is a typical day's work.
Boy to man
The Swiss champion literally jumped to international fame, when he won his first two gold medals at the Salt Lake City Winter Olympic Games in 2002. Only 20 years old at the time, he won in both the long and short jump events. Wearing his Harry Potter-style glasses and dressed for the prize giving in the Swiss Olympic team's unfortunate uniform, which included an enormously long silver coat, the slight athlete looked an unlikely hero.
Four years later at the Turin Winter Olympics, his run of success was interrupted, when he finished 15th and 38th respectively in the long and short jump. Undeterred, he returned to the Olympic stage for a fourth time, at this year's Vancouver games: He would return home with another two gold medals around his neck--a first in ski-jumping history.
This time, with the silver coat gone, the Harry Potter-style glasses replaced by large white-framed sunglasses--a Swiss star was established. While still displaying his somewhat un-Swiss outgoing personality, he gave a bear hug to a rather stunned Swiss President Doris Leuthard after his victory: Vancouver Ammann was clearly no longer a boy, but had turned into a confident and mature man.
As he faces a new season on the back of his incredibly successful one last winter--as well as his wedding during the summer--Ammann already has his eyes on the next challenge.
"I have already achieved most of my goals, but there is still one competition I have yet to win: the Four Hills Tournament, which takes place annually [over] December and January, in Germany and Austria," Ammann tells me.
Fighting fit
However, a weak back has prevented Ammann from getting an early start in training. Despite this, during the summer grand prix competition, he always placed in the top 10 of the few events in which he participated. Ammann tells Swiss News that he saw the summer events as a tryout for the new equipment rules that were introduced by the International Ski Federation after the Vancouver...
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