Svancer in Chur. / Picture: Fis SmugMug
The Ski World Cup in the Olympic winter brought an early bang for Austria's athletes on Friday. In his first Freestyle World Cup for Austria, Czech-born Matej Svancer won the Big Air competition in Chur straight away, which is more than half the cost of participating in the Beijing Games. In seventh place, Lukas Müllauer ensured that for the first time ever, two ÖSV athletes were placed in a final among the men.
The headlines clearly belonged to Svancer, with 99.00 points the only 17-year-old got an absolute top rating. ÖSV coach Roman Kuss pointed out that such scores cannot always be assumed. On the other hand, the result from Switzerland shows the strengths of the shooting stars of the freestyle scene. Kuss: “Matej is characterized by his coolness, his focus and determination, as well as his talent for movement, his body awareness and his body language.”
The trainer also emphasized that Svancer can implement new training inputs very quickly. “It's easier for him to learn new things, but he also works very hard for it.” The school should not be neglected, however, the Matura at the Saalfelden Ski School is scheduled for the spring of 2023. “We clarified that with his mom that school education is just as important,” said Kuss.
Now fully integrated into the red-white-red World Cup team, in addition to the training for Svancer, it is currently a “tough time”, as Kuss said. “Matej is already a professional enough that he devotes himself to school when he has a three-hour break from sport.” Kuss sees Svancer well-equipped for the expected increasing public and especially the media's closer attention to the Olympics. “He's a cool sock there too. But he also thinks about it when dealing with the media.”
The junior world champion in Big Air and Slopestyle would still appear at the China Games as a 17-year-old, and he will not be 18 years old until March 26th. The Prague-born and his teammates will continue at World Cup level on the 19th and 20th. November in Neustift in the Stubaital with a slopestyle competition, the next and last World Cup Big Air of the season is for 3rd / 4th. Scheduled December in Steamboat Springs.
