Péter Bohus’ interview with Noa Szőllős
(excerpt from the book “LEVEL UP – 40 Years of History & What Lies Behind It“)
THE YOUNGEST SZŐLLŐS SIBLING AND THE ONLY FEMALE MEMBER OF THE SPORTS CHILDREN IS NOA SZŐLLŐS, WHO ACHIEVED SERIOUS RESULTS AT THE YOUTH OLYMPICS. SHE SAYS SHE NOW UNDERSTANDS WHY SHE HAD TO GIVE UP SO MUCH.
– Why did you start skiing?
– Because someone put me in a pair of ski boots and on two skis, and I pushed me down a slope. Just kidding. But it happened pretty much like that. I couldn’t even say no because I was two years old, so I didn’t have much of choice.
– But you loved it and stayed with the sport…
– Well, sometimes it was hard to get up at six in the morning to put on my ski boots in minus degrees, but in the last couple of years, I realized that it wasn’t such a bad idea after all. When you’re younger, you don’t yet understand why you have to get up when the others are still sleeping or can play in the afternoons, and I go here and there. I didn’t enjoy that part, but after going to school in Austria, where everyone takes skiing seriously, the coaches are different, and you really start skiing in a way that feels like real skiing. It’s a completely different feeling.
– Do you have to make more sacrifices compared to an average person your age? Is there something you missed because of skiing?
– All the programs that are in winter! Anyway, no, I don’t have a sense of missing out. I grew up in this. I don’t know anything else. The only thing I miss is that I don’t get to see my friends very often. I also missed school a lot because of frequent traveling, so I have only a handful of friendships that survived. My friends are scattered around the world. One of my best friends lives in Sweden, the other in Austria. Some live in the Czech Republic, and some live on the other side of Hungary. So skiing is a bit lonely. On the other hand, I get along very well with my coach, and we are also friends at competitions, but during school, and especially in the summer, when I’m at home, I can’t meet anyone. Sometimes I miss having friends even where I am.
– How was your last season?
– We changed ski brands in the 2021 season, and I didn’t have many opportunities to test the ski boots and everything, and I also had a lot of problems, so I couldn’t achieve an outstanding result in the first Olympics of my life. At the end of the season, I had a lot more time. We were able to try everything. We found out what the problems were and how to fix them. We tried a bunch of other skis, and suddenly I started getting results I couldn’t have imagined a year ago. Our new ski brand, Kästle, used to be one of the most successful ski equipment manufacturers, then they got bought out and stopped making racing skis. However, the new ownership structure once again got interested in racing, and a couple of years ago, they restarted the production of the racing gear. I became one of the first to be embraced by the new management. Before that, I was with an Austrian ski brand. I am just a number there, and thousands of other Austrians were more important than me, but here they know me. I have been to the company several times, they talk to me, and if I say that I don’t like something, they build another ski. You don’t get that anywhere else, especially not at my level. I really needed this, and it helped a lot.
– Are you exercising enough?
– No. I should do a lot more, but I can’t right now. My coach prescribed a program I should follow, but I don’t always succeed. I am a student in the last year of the Waidhofen Economic High School, and I had an awful lot of final exams, and I am also preparing for my graduation, which will be in the fall.
– Do you think the order is clear to you? Study first, then sports?
– Studying is not more important, but it is necessary. It comes from my father’s side that learning and sports can only work together! Grades are not so important, but sports should not come at the expense of learning.
– You can see that many athletes listen to some kind of music before a competition. Do you have one too? What is that?
– Always different. In my very first season, I always listened to Rammstein’s Sehnsucht. Right now, Fit For An Autopsy is one of my favorite bands, which I kept listening to at the Olympics. It’s on the rougher side. We saw them in concert in Vienna and Budapest.
– Tell me about the biggest competition so far, which you enjoyed the most from the inside!
– That was the junior world championship in Canada. In the giant slalom, my favorite and main discipline, I was 26th and 27th in the ranking list and according to the number of starts, and I went there thinking that if it went well, I might reach the top 15 or 10. Then after the first run, I was third. Well, that was a surprise. I was very happy. In the end, I finished seventh, but I competed against people who had already competed in the European Cup, won, and even in the World Cup a couple of times. But when I reached the finish line at the Youth Olympics, I really didn’t know what to expect, and then there it was: the best time. In the end, I came third, and the next day I finished second in the combined, making skiing history. At first, I didn’t even realize it, and the joy came only afterwards, but in Canada I immediately thought WAY TO GO!
– What is your vision for the future? How long do you want to compete?
– It depends on how long I can improve myself and whether I have a chance to be among the top competitors in the World Cup. Also, from how long I can last. Most people stop skiing between the ages of 25 and 30.
– Will you work as a trainer, or do you think you will live an average civilian life?
– Right now, I can’t say that I would work as a coach because, as I see from my coach, I’m not sure that’s exactly what I want. But we will find out. If one day I really get to a level where they ask me from somewhere whether I want to train them or give a demonstration, maybe, but I will probably stay at home.
– Does climate change seriously affect winter sports? Do you guys talk about this?
– There’s no need to talk because we see it all the time. It has been almost impossible to ski in Austria since spring. Several glaciers that were open all summer are now closed. There is no snow. So, it’s brutal, and everything changes so quickly. The biggest problem is when a tiny black stone appears on the glacier because it absorbs the sunlight, and when it heats up, it melts all the ice around it. In July, we trained at 3,000…3,200 meters a few years ago. Now you can hardly go anywhere below 3,400 meters. In France, too, you can only ski on the very top of the glacier, while the water flows in streams in the lower part of the track. You can barely get up to the elevator. Best case scenario, the elevator pulls you up on water. In the worst case, on stones.
