ÖSV ace Marco Schwarz and his 100 percent plan

The all-rounder has already experienced the stress of travel. Having only returned home to Carinthia on Tuesday evening from a five-week training camp in Chile, he traveled to Vienna on Wednesday morning for sponsorship commitments. “At Christmas I’ll see which direction it goes. Whether I complete all the races or whether it continues on the technical or speed side.”

The 28-year-old stood on the World Cup podium four times last winter, he won the giant slalom in Palisade Tahoe, and at the final in Soldeu he achieved his first speed pole in second place in the Super-G. His performance at the World Championships in Courchevel/Meribel was outstanding, when he won silver in the combination, bronze in the giant slalom, as well as placing fourth in the downhill and sixth in the slalom and super-G. In the year without a major event, there are of course goals. “I want to build on my successes. Of course, balls are always nice. I want to carry out my program the way I plan on doing it. Ideally in all four disciplines. Then we have to take stock.”

“Don’t want to neglect technical disciplines”

The fact that the speed project that started last year ended with a podium finish gave Schwarz a lot of motivation to continue pursuing the project. “I added a speed block right in the spring. I want to continue to implement that, but I also don’t want to neglect the technical disciplines. I enjoy changing disciplines a lot, in Chile I trained everything in a very balanced way. Things will change in Sölden “Specialize in the direction of giant slalom. After Zermatt, I’ll maybe train for speed one day or another. After that, it’ll just happen in quick succession.” The start is planned for October 29th on the glacier in Sölden.

He has come up with a good plan with racing director Marko Pfeifer and group trainer Martin Kroisleitner. “That you don’t shoot yourself down and that you still have the grit at the end.” The current calendar calls for 45 races, with the final approval taking place this week. He is already entering his tenth winter with his fitness coach Hannes Schwarz. “I have always survived the last few seasons physically very well, I feel ready for a busy program again,” said the athlete. The Radentheiner gained two to three kilograms. “I’m currently at 88 kilos. I’ve been able to keep it up well over the winter in recent years and have lost almost nothing.”

Excited about Zermatt descents

He is “very excited” about the two for 11/12. Departures planned for November in Zermatt-Cervinia. “Nobody has any experience, that could benefit me because I don’t have that much speed experience. I’ve seen a few videos where they tried out the jumps, that looks interesting. The calendar offers a lot of highlights, the home races are right at the top the list.” The World Cup final will be held in Saalbach-Hinterglemm, the venue for the 2025 World Cup. There is still a lot of time until then, for Schwarz it is now a matter of recovering a little, sleeping in and getting back into fitness training on Monday.

Christine Scheyer, like Schwarz, a Uniqa athlete and with a contract extension, had shoulder surgery in January and feels ready to return. “Everything has healed very well, I can ski freely. I’m sure the comeback will work well.” She was already able to give it 100 percent during training in South America.