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Kira Weidle is happy about the silver medal
Photo:
LEONHARD FOEGER / REUTERS
There is the story of eight-year-old Kira Weidle, who wrote a school essay on the subject: "What do I want to become?": Skier.
The teacher, the story goes on, is said to have said, skier, that wasn't a job after all.
Eight-year-old Kira replied, "If you drive fast enough, then yes."
On Saturday, Kira Weidle was definitely fast enough on the Tofana in Cortina d'Ampezzo.
Vice world champion in the downhill, beaten only by the Swiss Corinne Suter.
Weidle has never been so far ahead in the World Cup, two third places in Lake Louise and Garmisch have been her greatest successes so far.
You can't imagine a better timing than increasing your own personal best at a World Cup.
In this respect, the sports information service SID spoke of a "sensational silver medal", Kira Weidle would probably not call it that.
"She knows that she is good," said her head coach Jürgen Graller a year ago, and attested that she had a "healthy, positive arrogance".
If you heard Weidle speak before the race, you can guess what he meant: "Everyone knows that a lot is possible for me in the race," the 24-year-old had already prophesied after training - and should be right.
Cortina and Kira Weidle - that's an intimate relationship anyway.
She has already finished in the top ten three times in the World Cup on the Tofana, and has already been fourth here.
But never a second.
Also experienced setbacks
It was already clear before this World Cup that, with her speed skills, after Viktoria Rebensburg's resignation, she would have the sole hope of women's alpine sport.
But to withstand the self-imposed pressure so much, you have to manage first.
“The snow was fantastic to drive today.
I knew that if it went together, I could drive really fast. ”There it is again, the self-confidence that she has apparently successfully saved from the age of eight into today.
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Kira Weidle on the way to silver
Photo: DENIS BALIBOUSE / REUTERS
She has already made her experiences with setbacks.
For the World Cup two years ago, she traveled to Are, Sweden, as a kind of secret favorite. The result was 13th place in the downhill and 18th place in the Super-G.
Then she had to learn what it means not to meet expectations.
It took a while to come to terms with this.
The following season was rather mixed.
The best training times alternated with disappointing placements.
The vicissitudes of a life as a skier, everyone in the scene has gone through it.
Graller once characterized his protégé as “extremely mature and extremely cool”.
Characteristics that are very important for rushing down the slopes winter after winter, anyone who devotes themselves to the speed disciplines not only has to struggle with ups and downs of their own form, but also always has to do with the challenge of danger.
Injuries are almost normal.
This time, the top favorite Sofia Goggia got caught in the run-up to the World Cup, and Weidle also had to sit out the previous season because of a torn ligament in his thumb joint, which this season started with two training falls.
As a skier you have to put up with that too.
Met Mittermaier at the age of 13
At some point there will be life after skiing, Weidle said in an interview with the Munich Ski Association a few years ago when she was just starting the first FIS races.
Until then, however, she is convinced that “will can move mountains”.
The interviewer then drew a very impressed conclusion: "If you are heard like that, you are fully focused on success."
"I want to become an Olympic champion one day." This sentence by the young Weidle has also been passed down.
At the age of 13, she met Rosi Mittermaier, the famous gold Rosi, at a sports gala in Munich.
Mittermaier was everything Weidle wanted to be: Olympic champion, also world champion, incidentally the last German downhill world champion, that was 45 years ago.
After this meeting at the latest, Weidle knew that a skier can be a profession, and a very successful one.
At least then she knew that she could become that too.
As of today, the whole world knows.
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