“Double Olympic champion sounds really bad. I can’t even pronounce it,” blurted out Anna Gasser after successfully defending her snowboard title from Pyeongchang 2018 in the Big Air in Beijing. The 30-year-old from Millstatt can hardly believe her luck, tomorrow she flies home and wants to share this magical moment with her loved ones. Above all with the mother and her partner Clemens Millauer, who had to go under the knife yesterday after breaking an ankle.
“I’ll get gold and he’ll have an operation. You can see how close success and setbacks are next to each other,” mused Gasser, who seems to be running out of superlatives. “I don’t see myself as a legend. You can’t say that about yourself, otherwise you’re not. That doesn’t suit me,” said the exceptional athlete, even in the hour of triumph, very modestly. That’s not the only thing that makes her so likeable, she talks like her mouth – pardon the sloppy formulation – has grown. And when she has something to tell, she doesn’t stop even if her voice threatens to fail after an incredibly exhausting day.
The day the anger went away
“Don’t worry, it’s not Corona. I’m tested every day,” Gasser gave the all-clear after a few coughs at the zoom meeting with the journalists. “Herzbube” Millauer from Molln had supported her to the best of his ability before his operation. “It’s bitter for me because of the injury, but at the same time it’s incredibly cool that it paid off for Anna. She showed her best performance,” said the 27-year-old, who even spoke to Gasser on the phone during their competition. “I called Clemens before my second and before my third jump. The medal doesn’t really belong to me alone, we trained and experienced so much together. He was there for all my successes before,” reported Gasser: “I hope We can celebrate a little together now.”
The mental course for the triumph was set last Sunday. It was a day to forget. Beijing sank in the snow, the training didn’t go according to plan, Millauer got injured. “My nerves shook. The turning point was that I accepted the situation. I said to myself, now you won’t be angry anymore and also jump for Clemens. Suddenly I was more relaxed,” says Gasser.
The lightness of being returned, others had the pressure because no one could take the gold from Pyeongchang from her. Gasser’s performance was like something out of a picture book. The best came last. The Carinthian unpacked the Cab Double Cork 1260 for the first time in a competition. The incorrectly approached “jump” with three and a half turns, two of which were overhead, worked perfectly. “The last jump was the crowning glory. Actually, I was either close this season or I totally screwed it up. Somehow the universe wasn’t on my side, but today everything went well,” says Gasser, who is looking forward to the return Austria should be noted. “I want to enjoy this freedom, to go out without accreditation, to meet friends. You felt like you were in a golden cage, that’s pretty good.”
Golden Anna has not yet made any plans for the future, but stopping is not an option at the moment. “Right now I can’t imagine my life without snowboarding. I’m having fun, I feel physically fit and I know it won’t get boring because there’s always something to improve. The good thing about freestyle is that you can never be perfect can.”
Source: Nachrichten
