Beautiful words of Petra Vlhová before the start of the new season: I laugh a lot, I’m happier! – Športky.sk

SÖLDEN – Slovak skier Petra Vlhová will not be the “push to the saw” in the role of the defender of the big globe for the overall championship in the World Cup. She has already achieved life success in the prestigious series, and in the coming winter, the Beijing Olympics will be one of her main goals. After the change of coach, he praises the atmosphere in the team and looks forward to competing under less pressure.

Twenty-six-year-old Vlhová will start the season on Saturday with a huge slalom in Sölden (10.00 / 13.15). Last year she achieved her best result when she took the third position, which she rose from the tenth place after the first round: “I look at it in a way that needs to be taken right at the beginning. The first rounds in Sölden didn’t work out for me, I’m trying to prepare for it to be better. If I want to win, I need two rounds for that. I’ll definitely try to improve it. I feel good “

Rettenbach is one of the few slopes in the SP calendar where both women and men compete: “I think the track suits me. I like challenging hills, I have the technique and the strength to do it. There are many factors that can affect it. I like Sölden, if we go from the top, we started many times from a lower place, then they are it’s a completely different race. The hill suits me, we’ll see what the conditions will be like, it was foggy last year. The piste is hard, it’s high, so we’re a little out of breath when we come down. “

In the inter-season period, the Slovak national team was trained in Italy, Switzerland and Austria. The biggest change took place in the position of head coach, replacing Italian Livio Magoni after winning a big globe by the Swiss Mauro Pini. “I’m looking forward to the race, it’s something new, by changing the head coach. I have a great team, I’m looking forward to working to be together. I laugh a lot, I’m happier than I used to be. So it’s carried over. for skiing, it fills me more, ” said Vlhová, who does not oppose comparing the former and the new coach: “It’s normal for a person to compare. I won’t think it’s bad, even if people compare that it was like this with Livio and it’s like this with Mauro. But they have to respect it, it was my decision, I already needed that change. I’m key point, I need to be happy to get results. Now I’m happy, I wanted a change, even if it wasn’t easy. I’m thinking about it, but only in the positive. “

He’s just watching Shiffrin

In the pre-season interviews, Vlhová emphasized that she would focus on herself, not her rivals, watching only the great American rival Mikael Shiffrin on the social network Instagram: “I don’t care at all about what they do, how they do it. I expect the highest goals from myself. We are not going to the big globe, even if there are no races, there will be more. We could not say this before because we would miss points. it will be less stressful from the point of view. “

• The author: © List
• Source: TASR