2024-02-16 06:33:53
Dominique Gisin: “In the first few years I regretted resigning”
Nine years ago, Dominique Gisin unexpectedly announced her retirement from the Ski World Cup at the age of 29. The 2014 Olympic downhill champion talks to blue Sport regarding her life away from the ski slopes, her sister Michelle and the many injuries to top stars.
No time? blue News summarizes for you
- Years following her Olympic victory in Sochi, blue Sport met former speed driver Dominique Gisin in Engelberg.
- The 38-year-old says that she initially regretted her early resignation. Nowadays she doesn’t go on skis very often anymore. Gisin has been a mother for a year. “I really enjoy the little one,” she says.
- She follows her little sister Michelle’s achievements very closely. But Dominique doesn’t give any more tips: “I’m mainly there for emotional support.”
“It was a wonderful, crazy journey for me,” said Dominique Gisin in March 2015 when she announced her resignation in Meribel, France. A year following winning Olympic downhill gold in Sochi, she had had enough of top-class sport. After the greatest success of her career, it became more difficult for her to motivate herself. And so a career marked by many injuries ended at the age of 29.
Nine years have passed since then. Dominique Gisin reveals in an interview with blue Sport that there were always moments, especially at the beginning, when she regretted her early resignation. “In the first two or three years I had the feeling that I should be at the start of every race,” she laughs. “But that went away over time.”
Gisin doesn’t ski very often these days. After her career, the Engelberg resident devoted herself to other things. Among other things, she is now a trained pilot, has completed a physics degree and is an administrative board member at the TITLIS mountain railways.
And Gisin has been the mother of a daughter for a year. «At the moment I’m primarily a mom, which is really nice. “I really enjoy the little one,” says the 38-year-old. “Otherwise, I still have one or two exciting mandates. So I won’t get bored.”
No more tips for Sister Michelle
Of course, Gisin also follows the events in the Ski World Cup from afar. Especially since her little sister Michelle, as one of the figureheads of the Swiss Ski Team, fights for podium places race following race. But there are no more tips from big sister today.
“I’m primarily there for emotional support,” smiles Dominique Gisin. “She has so much experience now and drives better than I have ever driven. Michelle goes her own way and she goes very well. I hope she can continue to drive pain-free. Then everything is possible.”
“She drives better than I have ever driven,” says Dominique Gisin (right) regarding her sister Michelle (left).
Bild:
Keystone
Michelle Gisin returned to the World Cup last weekend following a short injury break and finished fourth in the Soldeu slalom. At the end of January she bruised the edge of her shoe on the descent in Cortina d’Ampezzo, but got off lightly in the race, which was marred by serious falls. Several top drivers were seriously injured in that race.
“Caution is not the best thing either”
The list of injured top stars in the Ski World Cup is getting longer and longer. Among the women, Mikaela Shiffrin, Petra Vlhova, Sofia Goggia, Corinne Suter, Wendy Holdener and Joana Hählen are out. And among men, several top athletes are also affected: Marco Schwarz, Aleksander Kilde and Alexis Pinturault, to name just three.
Dominique Gisin repeatedly had to fight back from serious injuries throughout her career; she had to undergo knee surgery nine times. She doesn’t want to look for reasons for the current injury woes. “I’m too far away to be able to offer a reasonable explanation,” she says. “Basically, the sport is simply dangerous, the speeds are enormous.”
However, Gisin does not believe that the drivers will be more cautious in the upcoming speed races in Crans-Montana following the events of the last few weeks: “Caution is not the best thing either. It takes conviction. It takes courage on a downhill run and the athletes train every day to get the most out of it,” she says. “But I hope that the races in Crans-Montana can take place without any crashes.”
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