Alpine skiing and injuries are closely linked. The example of Mauro Caviezel speaks volumes in this regard. Graubünden has just announced his retirement following another fall which was too many.
Caviezel had the talent, the technical and physical abilities as well as the mentality to face adversity and play for victory or the podium on a regular basis in the World Cup. But Grison paid a heavy price with injuries, which ultimately forced him to throw in the towel.
Abandonment prohibited
Mauro Caviezel has accumulated the hard knocks. Each time he came back stronger. “I’ve always tried to look positively to the future“, he summarized during a press conference in Wengen. For him, the word abandonment did not seem to be in his vocabulary.
Grison had to wait to see the light and establish itself among the elite. He had to wait 11 years between his silver medal in the combined at the Junior Worlds in 2006 and his first podium in the World Cup…
glory day
His first real day of glory dates back to February 2017 in Saint-Moritz. Caviezel then won an unexpected bronze medal in the combined Worlds. “A day like this compensates you for everything you had to go through before“, he said then.
Then he had a lot of good days, with 11 World Cup podiums. The high point occurred on December 12, 2020 with his victory in the super-G of Val d’Isère, the only one of his career at this level, when he was already 32 years old. “An incredible dream“, he had said.
But the bad luck, which had accompanied her during her first seasons, would return. Winner of the super-G globe in 2019/20, he was leader of the specialty the following winter when he fell violently during training in Garmisch and suffered a major concussion.
No memory
It took him almost 2 years to recover and come back to the World Cup. But alas, another big fall at Lake Louise 6 weeks ago in super-G put him back on the side.
Caviezel still cannot explain this somersault, following reviewing the images a hundred times. “I fall without defending myself. Why? I can’t say, I don’t remember.“
This prompted him to make the decision to quit, despite “a great passion intact“for skiing.”I’m fine, nothing will bother me for the rest of my life. But I obviously can’t control everything on certain situations on the track. It’s not enough at this level“, he explained.
ats/tzing
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