Franziska Gritsch
When you are a child, you are afraid of everything because you don't know the world's facts. When you are a child, you are afraid of nothing because you don’t know the world's threats.
When Franziska thinks of her first runs on skis, she reminds of an excited and unstoppable little girl, facing each challenge with an eagerness to look for more to overcome. A daredevil little girl chasing higher and higher jumps in fresh snow, among the woods of her valley in Sölden, Austria.
A lighthearted childhood always connected with nature of her beloved mountains.
Leaving home with skis on her feet almost every day after school is a privilege she is well conscious of and grateful for.
Every day chasing thrills and adrenaline with that desire and insatiability only children have. Every limit a challenge, every challenge a discovery.
Even in competitions she always strived for dare in dare, to give herself motivation, to raise the bar, to go beyond.
Then you grow up. You realize about the successful bets and the ones where life gives you a chance to lose without losing too much. Like when pushing the limit meant a few injuries that, with luck and a lot of tenacity, did not compromise your entire career. A long way to recover. But even to get the run-up you have to take a few steps back.
These are the moments in life which, on one hand, take away lightheartedness, but consolidate personality and make us discover who we really are and which goals we will always keep in mind.
Franziska knows that the burden of an athlete's life also falls on others. Family, friends, coaches, they all gravitate to the ever-increasing commitments. The World Cup jump was certainly not as easy as those among the woods she did as a child, but you must preserve the same pleasure in facing even the unfamiliar.
Just family and friends are a refuge and escape from the routine of training and competitions. For those who constantly live pushing the limit further in striving for performance, a coffee with friends or baking their favorite cakes represents a moment of break and peace from stopwatches, gym and spotlights.
Now Franziska comes back to the starting gate more confident and conscious.
Inside her that little girl is pawing to play with speed. That young athlete, however, now skis virtually alongside an older, more self-conscious Franziska who channels that impetuosity over the edge.
Perhaps this is what truly makes a complete athlete, the boldness and the energy of a child, tamed by experience and consciousness of the limit. A limit as thin as the edges, on which to unload all the power but without forgetting the balance measure. In this sport madness and wisdom, strength and control, run parallel.