Péter Bohus’ interview with Barnabás Szőllős
(excerpt from the book “LEVEL UP – 40 Years of History & What Lies Behind It“)
BORN IN 1998, BARNABÁS SZŐLLŐS ACHIEVED 6th PLACE IN THE 2022 OLYMPICS AS AN ALPINE SKIER. HOWEVER, THE YOUNGEST MALE MEMBER OF THE NIVELCO FAMILY IS NOT ONLY A FANTASTIC ATHLETE BUT ALSO AN INSTINCTIVE TALENT WHO KNOWS THE PROBLEMS OF HIS SPORT FIRSTHAND AND CAN OFFER TECHNICAL SOLUTIONS TO THEM BASED ON HIS EXPERIENCE AS AN ATHLETE. BARNABÁS’S FUTURE MAY BE THE WORKSHOP, BUT AT THE MOMENT, SKIING STILL DRIVES HIS LIFE.
– How about your father saying your life is one big trip?
– Well, as much as we travel, you can say that.
– How much are you traveling?
– I haven’t calculated it yet. I don’t even think it’s possible. So far, we have competed and trained on four continents. This year we were in China after European training and races, then I flew to Andorra, where all the snow had melted. We went there to compete. We only held a downhill practice, but it was hot, it was raining, the snow was soft, and the track became dangerous, so they canceled everything, and I drove all the way home.
– Your father said about you that you could easily spend 365 days on a mountain and make a good living.
– Yes. It would be nice to rock climb and ski all day. Of course, you can get bored of this after a while, but I don’t know. I don’t usually rock climb that much, only occasionally. If I have time and my buddy is there in Innsbruck, I climb with him, and when I’m at a training camp, and he’s nearby, I go there by car, we climb together, and then I go back. We had already climbed together as teenagers, and that remained. Dad suggested that we go to a climbing room. There is one near Murau, where we live. Even here, at NIVELCO, there was a wall in the other building, where there were a couple of tongs up to the roof, and you could climb up. It’s no longer possible though.
– Noa mentioned that you and her were close. Do you also remember that way?
– Now we’re all on good terms. Of course, when we were little, we used to fight over everything, but only because it was funny. There was a time when Benji and I badgered Noa together, but otherwise, everything was fine.
– Did the fact that you were competitive, even back then, play a part in this badgering and fighting? Was it competition or just the typical sibling badgering?
– It was more like brotherly fighting. It happened that when we went for a run, we would compete with each other to see who would get home faster. Same with cycling. But we don’t do that anymore because Noa doesn’t have the same endurance as us since we’re bigger. So, either I leave her behind, or we go together. When I competed in the Junior Olympics and came in seventh, I told Noa that from now on, her goal should be to be better than this. Then she got second and third, so she beat me with that. Now I was sixth in the regular Olympics, so her next goal is to beat me in that.
– Do you remember the first time you won a race?
– What race? FIS race? I remember, it was memorable. It was a slalom race in Montenegro, where I got quite good points. But for example, I don’t remember when I won the Hungarian Cup for the first time.
– What was your worst race, and what did you learn from it?
– The slalom and the giant are usually two-round races. It happened so many times that I really messed up the first one, and there was no point in staying there for the second run, so I went home. But there was also a race where one day I scored my best points and won, then the next day I made a mistake and didn’t even make the top thirty. Then I went home because there was no point in staying. No need to overthink this. By the way, I caught the corona that day, so it was good that I didn’t ski.
– For you, what is racing about?
– There are different competitions. There are the FIS competitions, which are about getting good points and winning. And then there are the World Cup competitions. I competed in a few this year, with the last starting number, so my chances were low, but I almost succeeded in Schladming nonetheless. But in such competitions, the only important thing is to be there with the top ones and enjoy it. Competing in a World Cup is completely different from a FIS competition, where I have to win.
– What’s it like to be sixth in the Olympics? After all, you have laid the foundation for your whole life with this. Or can you go even higher?
– If there is another combined, of which they always say it will be canceled, and I’ll be successful, then maybe. But even though I was sixth in the Olympics, other people only see that I ski for Israel, and then they look at me like, aah… We were on a glacier for three weeks in France. There is a separate line for regular FIS competitors, like us, and there is a separate ”priority” line for the world cup winners, the top 30. Last year, my coach walked up to the boss told him I was 13th in the overall world ranking, and he said, well, okay, 13th, but only in the combined, and that’s not a real competition number. The same happened this year. My coach went over and showed them I was sixth in the ranking, and they told him, again, that it was okay, but it was only the combined and it doesn’t count. I don’t know why this is so. Maybe because I’m not French, I’m not Italian, and I’m not from Germany, but from Israel. They are like that everywhere. Big nations don’t like small nations. This is mainly because at the Olympics, every country has a quota of how many alpine skiers they can enter for their country, and the more countries qualify, the less extra quota they can allocate to the big nations. A Jamaican and a Mexican qualified for China in a simplified competition, and they took two slots: one from the Austrians and one from the Swiss. They went ballistic so the slots were given back to them. They already know we are not fake competitors, but they are hysterical because of the Jamaican because the winner beat him by one minute in a two-minute race.
– What would you miss the most if you quit racing?
– I wouldn’t miss all the traveling, but I’d miss my teammates and acquaintances from skiing really bad. I feel the same way at home when I’m alone in Budapest. The last time I met new people there, I still went to grade school. When I’m at home, I have five friends, and if none of them are available, I can’t do anything.
– Would you do sports if you weren’t competing?
– If I could find something that would be a good hobby, then sure. It depends on what I would do instead. If I sat in an office all day, it would be difficult, but if I worked in sports, for example, as a ski coach, I would ski all day. I feel that if I’m not skiing and I’m at home, I’m not doing anything.
– Do you consider yourself lucky?
– There are lucky days and unlucky days. This season was good, but there were worse moments. I had a race where I could have achieved my best score by far, but I was eliminated because of stupid things like, for example, my two knee pads got stuck before the finish line. Those are unlucky days, but whatever, there is always another competition. All in all, I consider myself lucky.
