The 33-year-old dominated the Ski World Cup last winter. After that, she says she probably won’t last more than one season. But a forced change of coach disrupts this belief. In Sölden she canceled the start at short notice because she did not feel fit enough.
It is no coincidence that she stands without a headband or a hat: Lara Gut-Behrami has lost her main sponsor.
She is back. That’s almost an event for Lara Gut-Behrami, because hardly any athlete does herself as rarely as she does. At the end of last season she received the big crystal ball for winning the overall World Cup, as well as the trophies for the discipline victory in the giant slalom and the Super-G. She said there would be one more season, probably nothing else. Then she was gone.
Away means: with her husband Valon Behrami in Udine, probably during the holidays at some point, and later in training in different places. But away from the scene. She gave her last major interview in 2021; he already had farewell to social networks in 2018. She only posts on Facebook from time to time for the sponsors.
The last one was from April of this year, and the news will probably become rarer now, because it was announced in Sölden that the contract between her and the chocolate maker Camille Bloch has been terminated. The company is struggling with high cocoa prices. For twelve years, Gut-Behrami wore the Ragusa logo on his helmet, hat or headband, but this area is still empty. The reason for the separation is not disclosed.
The loss of the main sponsor costs Gut-Behrami a lot of money
Interestingly, last year’s overall winner started the season without a main sponsor. If Camille Bloch pulled out of the contract at short notice for economic reasons, the current situation can be explained. An athlete like Gut-Behrami is likely to demand a mid-six-figure sum from a major sponsor. There aren’t that many companies that put that much money on the table.
In addition, it would be risky to join at a time when it is not clear whether Gut-Behrami will continue even after this season. This is also why you should weigh the effort and the result. Her private team costs much less than at the beginning because her fitness trainer is employed by Swiss Ski, and she now often goes on the slopes with groups from the association. She also earns well without a main sponsor. Last winter she earned nearly 600,000 francs in prize money, and her ski outfit is expected to pay her in the six-figure range as well.
She said in an interview with the NZZ in 2021 why she shows herself less and less in public and gives herself up for PR appearances. “You just have to accept what’s going on around you – that’s a phrase no athlete would ever say. That means you can’t decide about your life because everything is already decided.”
There are no regulations that say she has to participate in every race, she says. «But when I start, I should automatically take on countless obligations at the same time. It’s about me doing my best to be successful in the race.” Participating in a public lottery for the starting number the evening before the start, completing a marathon of interviews after each race, appearing at this or that press conference: all of this is taken with disdain.
Other athletes have the same or something similar to say. Outsiders can’t imagine how much energy it takes to get into racing mode and then push yourself to the limit, meter by meter. Then answer the same questions a hundred times in the finish area and smile too? Gifted.
Im Movie “Aiming High” Regarding her ultimately failed attempt to run downhill runs on the Matterhorn, Gut-Behrami says: “I was never calm, I always had to deliver.” And she wanted that too: in interviews, in front of the media, with sponsors. “I wanted to prove to everyone: I am number 1 now.” In the end she was still not satisfied. Success cost her so much of her life that she felt: “It just doesn’t work like that.”
Now she has created quiet zones for herself, and when she gets out of them, she can deliver where it matters most: Lara Gut-Behrami has never worked as strongly and consistently as she did last winter. That’s amazing because she already had 16 World Cup seasons under her belt, won everything there was to win and fought back from two serious injuries. She is now 33 years old and feels that her career is coming to an end.
Olympic gold, World Cup and overall World Cup titles: Lara Gut-Behrami has won everything skiing.
In the spring she talked about what would probably be the last season, but now it seems less clear. This is also indirectly related to a change in her private staff. At the final of the 2024 World Cup, Gut-Behrami had to learn that her coach Alejo Hervas was abandoning her and becoming conditioning coach Marco Odermatt. She confronted Hervas and sent him home. Then she had to find a new carer. His name is Flavio Di Giorgio, he lives in Italy not far from Gut-Behrami’s home and once looked after Sofia Goggia.
The Italian hasn’t reinvented fitness training, but he does bring new ideas. It showed her that even at over 30, you can try to push your limits even further. “The changes are always good,” says the athlete, “and that forced me to continue with another season.”
First the knees were damaged, then I caught the flu
As for the sport, Gut-Behrami always said that the most important thing for her was to make a perfect turn on a closed track, and she could only do that in racing. This is now put into perspective. Last winter she went skiing alone for the first time in 15 years, she said in Sölden. She probably needs to get used to this kind of sport and feel that it’s not so bad after all.
But she still hadn’t found her way into racing mode at the start of the season. On Saturday morning, Gut-Behrami decided to skip the giant slalom in Sölden. She said beforehand that she was ready to go skiing. Unlike other years, after the summer break, the good feeling of the previous winter was back on the first trip. But after that the problems increased.
First, she slipped off the track during the training camp in South America and took a hit on her left knee, which is extremely sensitive since a cruciate ligament tear in 2017. After that, there were days when the pain so bad she could not bend her knee. An MRI showed that nothing was broken, but a break was necessary.
The athlete then tried to rebuild her muscles with a block in the weight room, but she came down with the flu. She could not eat or drink for four days and lay in bed for a week. And in the process she lost strength again. Recently she has been able to train well, but because the muscles are not strong enough to support the knees, she lacks a little self-confidence.
Ultimately this led to a retreat to Sölden. «If you are only at 90 percent and you have doubts, it is not good to drive. The risk is too high, I don’t want an injury to end my career like that,” she said. Gut-Behrami now has a month until the next race at Killabhan to be 100 per cent fit again.