BBC: – It’s been a fantastic week of competition for Israel. The country has won its first medals in any sports at a Winter Games, and the success of Israel could be attributed to a single, young woman.
Noa: – Hello, I’m Noa Szollos. I ski for Israel, and I have just won a bronze and a silver medal at the Youth Olympic Games in Lausanne. It’s absolutely fantastic. I can barely put it into words, so many people are asking me now, and I still don’t know how to describe it. It’s such a feeling of pride. It’s been crazy, so many people have messaged me. I can’t even answer everyone. There’s just so much going on right now.
BBC: – We’ll talk about how did you win those medals a little bit later, I want to take you back, though how did you first get into skiing then Noa?
Noa: – My dad used to be a skier. He became a coach in Israel later on. I have two older brothers, so I started skiing with them. We all started at a very young age, when we were 2 or 3 years old. During the first half of the year, I was in Hungary and during the skiing season and winter, we were actually in Austria. You can’t really ski in Hungary as there are not many mountains suitable for training, so I started skiing in Austria. I also go to school in Lower Austria, Waidhofen an der Ybbs. It’s a School specialized in skiing where we don’t have school from December to March so that we can focus on training and races. This way, I don’t have to worry about school until I go back in March.
BBC: – That’s pretty cool, being able to ski and get away from school for a few months.
Noa: – Yeah, I mean who would want to sit in school when you can ski all around the world.
BBC: – What was the moment when you found out that you could do this even on competition level?
Noa: – I think the moment that I knew, or at least thought that I could do this, was happened when I won my first international children’s race in Andorra. I was so happy to be the best of all the represented countries. It was a huge moment for me.
BBC: – And if we take you full of Noa to competing now at the Youth Winter Olympics and winning your first medal, the bronze in the super-G. What do you remember from that winning run, how challenging was that, and what did you experience there?
Noa: – On the top, I was a kind of slow, so I didn’t know what to think during the run. And when my coach got down to the finish, he was like: “when your dad told me that you got in first, I thought he was kidding because you looked so slow at the top section, that I thought you would get in last.” And I just had to laugh so much because when I skied through the finish line, and I saw the 1st place I couldn’t believe it either, I thought someone was pulling a terrible prank on me. But when I realized that it was true, I felt so happy. I felt like a little child who found some chocolate at home. I felt like I finally found my chocolate.
BBC: – What did you get is a little bit more than chocolate. It was a bronze!
Noa: – Of course, it was frustrating when these two amazing girls pushed me down to third place, but considering my mistakes, I’m still very happy and amazed by the fact that I was only nine-hundredths of a second from grabbing the gold medal.
BBC: – Well, a bronze and then a silver in the Alpine combined is surely beyond your wildest dreams of what you could achieve.
Noa: – The Alpine combined was an even bigger surprise because usually, slalom is my weakest discipline, so coming into the finish in the second position and then staying there, I couldn’t believe it. It was probably an even bigger surprise than the super-G. I finally put together two perfect runs. I’ve been trying it for so many years now, and it all came together perfectly.
BBC: – Where can you go now? Are you looking at the Olympics in 2022; is Beijing a target? What more do you think you will be able to achieve?
Noa: – I’ll probably go to Beijing, I think I have pretty good chance at qualifying, but I’m not thinking about getting a medal yet. I don’t think I could keep up with the best in the world. I’ll be happy to be there. But I’m looking forward to the future. In four or five years, I hope that I’ll be part of the World Cup and I hope I’ll be able to compete with the best. I’m looking forward to the 2026 Olympics. I hope that I’ll have another success story there.
BBC: – Well, we wish you the very best for the future! Before you go there, now just confirm for me if you can ski in Israel, can’t you?
Noa: – Obviously there is enough snow to ski on the mountains in Israel, but sadly it only lasts for around two months and for me there aren’t enough possibilities to train there, but I hope I’ll be able to ski there one day.
BBC: – Ah, I see, but is there enough snow so that you can go and get your skis in Israel.
Noa: – Yes.
BBC: – You’ve had an incredible time in Lausanne. Thank you so much for talking to us Noa.
Noa: – Thank you very much!
