The most important event of this winter for the Szőllős siblings was the XXIV. Winter Olympics. Every athlete’s dream is the Olympics, so they work and struggle every day and put their life into it.
Four years ago, for reasons already known, the incompetent leadership of the Hungarian ski association restricted the two male racers of NIVELCO from the Olympic Games in Phongongong. None of the repeated animosity and exclusion did discourage them, and they returned to racing strengthened. Continuously evolving in recent years, they have been extremely successful in the world’s most prominent competitions. On January 30, 2022, after a long period of preparation and selection, the great adventure set off from Budapest under the leadership of Noa and Barnabás Szőllős and coach Péter Szőllős. Here are some quotes from interviews during the Olympics: „I’m finally here after many years of training and hard work,” Barnabás Szőllős shared this post with pictures of the Olympic opening on his social media page. In 2016, the alpine skier came in seventh in Hungary in the downhill skiing at the Lillehammer Youth Olympics.
Of the three Szőllős Brothers, Barnabás’ sister Noa was still in the Winter Olympics in Beijing, while Benjamin was not included in the Israeli team this time. Barnabás is a slalom specialist, but he is good at downhill, too, so he rightly hoped for a good performance in the alpine combination of these two numbers. When he finished 11th in the downhill, we could already hope that he would achieve a nice result. In the end, the Austrian Johannes Strolz won the alpine combination of men’s skiers, Barnabás Szőllős was only 1.75 seconds behind him, which was an amazing, unprecedented feat, and he reached the finish line with the second-best time in the slalom! „I went all-in on the downhill. I gave it all I had,” the 23-year-old skier, who had already finished third in the same number at the World Championships in Cortina d’Ampezzo last year, told Index.hu. „Although there was a moment when I lost my balance, I managed to correct it, and I got to the finish line at a great pace. I’m extremely happy. It’s a miracle we were able to talk now because my phone kept ringing. I even had to give an interview to a Chinese portal, not to mention the entire Israeli media.” – he said.
„It’s a lot better than I expected. I trusted the top15, which came together at last year’s World Championships in Cortina. I had a good downhill shape this season. I couldn’t have wished for more than that,” said Szőllős after the race, who was also asked what his results could mean for Israeli skiing. From our point of view, his response was painful. „I am proud to represent Israel. I think I made the fans and my family happy. I have shown that I can ski fast,” said the Hungarian-born skier.
There have been several interviews with the Szőllős family in the press, and now we quote from them. The head of the „Szőllős clan” is the head of the family, Péter Szőllős – himself an excellent competitor in Hungarian and Israeli colors and later coached for the Israeli national team – who manages the careers of his two sons and a daughter with great energies. The family has been spending the ski season in Austria for years, with the children attending, at first, a ski school in Murau, then a high school in Waidhofen. Then, before the 2018 Olympics, they were forced to change their country under turbulent conditions. „I was preparing for the Beijing Olympics in Italy with my brother Benjamin, an international team of about fifteen competitors from countries where alpine skiing is impossible because they don’t have the right kind of mountains,” Barnabás Szőllős continued.
„I slalomed a lot, and I think I was well prepared, as the result shows. I also started in two of my World Cup races. I already felt like I would do well at the Olympics. Slalom is my strength, but I can go downhill even though I’m not a Kilde (currently the best downhill racer).” After the success at the Beijing Olympics, Barnabás Szőllős told M4 Sport he was very happy with his performance. – „In the second race, I started well, pushed hard. I made two major mistakes, but I knew I did very well when I got to the finish line and saw the time result. I’m happy about the sixth place. I showed everyone that I can ski and that this isn’t all.”
Interestingly, at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics, a Romanian Hungarian, Miklós Edit, achieved the best result in the Hungarian history of downhill skiing in seventh place, and now, in Beijing, a skier, expatriated from Hungary, Barnabás Szőllős, sixth place.
The athletes are trained and prepared by Péter Szőllős, their father. We asked him to tell us about the most important events around March.
– What were your expectations going to the Winter Olympics? Are you satisfied?
– We are absolutely satisfied. Noa was one of the youngest athletes to participate in the Winter Olympics and wanted to finish in the top 40. She also got forty-fourth and thirty-fourth place. Although Barnabás is older, his goal was the top thirty in most numbers and the top fifteen in the combined. We were very happy when he finished sixth overall. Barnabás Szőllős was the only male racer to complete all five numbers of alpine skiing successfully. These are fantastic results.
– How different is the Olympics for an experienced and a young athlete?
– Barnabás has already competed in several world championships, including the European Cup, but of course, the Olympics is a huge opportunity for him. Most athletes and potential racers feel they have to live up to the expectations, and the younger ones want to prove themselves. By the way, Noa started for the first time in the World Championship last year. She knew she would have to race the best skiers. Sure, it was a little startling, but it’s just a push, and it goes away.
– How much did the preparation change due to the virus?
– The weeks before the Olympics were more tiring than the race itself. We have had to pay close attention to our health in the last few days, as China has introduced strict entry rules. Two negative tests had to be produced in the last seventy-two hours to enter the country, so it was already difficult to get to China in good health. And I had an easier time than Noa and Barnabás because I just had to isolate myself from the outside world. Athletes can’t stop training before a race, so it wasn’t even an option for them.
– Then the pandemic further increased the pre-race stress.
– Of course, there was extra pressure with the pandemic, as we could have gotten sick at any time. Then after we got to China, that stress was gone. We were kept in a bubble, and it wasn’t really up to us to get infected on the spot anymore. We didn’t see anything from the country, we attended an opening ceremony, but it also has a good side, we could focus on the sport.
– I think the races are for others without an audience.
– They’re empty. There were no spectators, and the athletes celebrated each other on the slopes. Anyway, I find that professional racers can disregard the lack of people. Athletes participating in the Summer Olympics repeatedly said that the pandemic made it difficult to prepare. After the outbreak in 2019, three months of strict quarantine followed. Skiers are more likely to prepare for fitness in the spring, which is even possible at home. Summer-fall workouts could also be solved because they were allowed to go to the glaciers with strict rules. However, we did not know when restrictions would come again. Because of the unpredictability, we tried to seize every opportunity. The end of it was that we overworked ourselves. This year, however, was already much more bearable and predictable.
– What was the most memorable thing about the Winter Olympics?
– The sixth-place of Barnabás. We hoped for a good result, but it surpassed all our dreams. In the end, Hungary did not get the glory for the result. The conflict began five years ago when disciplinary action was initiated against the three children and our association. I was notified about this after a race in Canada. We just took home to Hungary with first place and a medal. Disciplinary actions last one month, in the worst case, two months. For us, it lasted from March to November. The decision could have made it completely impossible for the kids to go on with their athletic careers. Noa, Benjamin, and Barnabás live in Austria for most of the year, so they usually receive an Austrian sports medical examination. The Hungarian sports doctor is only needed at the Hungarian championship, but in 2018 we also presented the Austrian certificate at this competition. I would add that it was accepted then. Then, two months later, disciplinary action was initiated. Later they told us not to expect a mitigating sentence. We had no choice, and we changed countries. I’m a dual citizen. I started in Israeli colors before, so that seemed obvious. It has been a difficult year, but we are over it. I am proud to have achieved fantastic results that few Hungarian skiers have achieved so far.
– The mental health of athletes is being raised more and more often. Is this a family business? What do you need to pay attention to?
– Many trips, challenges, and competitions make athletes independent. This is also the case in our case. The children quickly learned to deal with problems and stresses on their own.
Barnabás finished 6th in the alpine skiing combination at the recently concluded Winter Olympics. This was the best result ever from a Hungarian skier. The sport will change in the future, and the combined number in which Barnabás is the strongest may be out of the World Championships and the Olympics. Then you will have to decide whether to choose the speed or technical number. But not only is the future of Barnabás and Noa Szőllős is extremely promising, but he also won a silver and a bronze medal in the super-giant slalom at the 2020 Youth Winter Olympics in Lausanne. That’s enough for the top three in every international competition in his age group with these results.
Noa, who is only 19 years old, competed in all four events at Canada’s U21 Youth World Championships. She was ninth in the alpine combination and seventh in her favorite track, the Super G.
I don’t know how long Noa, Barni, and Benji can get or what other results they can achieve. Only time will tell. But what has been put on the table so far is much more than a skier from a non-alpine country can dream of.
We are proud of them, their results, and the fact that they have been training steadily since they were a child, holding on to their dreams regardless of the adversities they face. We wish them success!
