Lara Gut-Behrami’s motivation rekindled

She’s back. That alone is almost an event for Lara Gut-Behrami, because hardly any athlete makes herself as rare as she does. At the end of last season she received the large crystal ball for winning the overall World Cup, as well as the trophies for the discipline victories in the giant slalom and the super-G. She said there would be one more season, probably nothing more. Then she was gone.

Away means: with her husband Valon Behrami in Udine, probably during the holidays at some point, and later in training at various locations. But away from the scene. She gave her last big interview in 2021; she had already said goodbye to social networks in 2018. Only on Facebook does she occasionally post a post for the sponsors.

The last one was from April of this year, and the news is now likely to become even rarer, 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 record high cocoa prices. For twelve years, Gut-Behrami wore the Ragusa logo on his helmet, hat or headband, but now this area remains empty. Why the separation occurred is not communicated.

The loss of the head sponsor costs Gut-Behrami a lot of money

It is remarkable that last year’s overall winner started the season without a head sponsor. If Camille Bloch pulled out of the contract at short notice for economic reasons, the current situation is explainable. An athlete like Gut-Behrami is likely to demand a mid-six-figure amount from a head 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 unclear whether Gut-Behrami will even continue after this season. This is also why you should weigh up the effort and the return. Her private team costs significantly 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 head sponsor. Last winter she earned almost 600,000 francs in prize money, and her ski outfitter is also expected to pay her in the six-figure range.

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. “That you just have to accept what’s going on around you – that’s a sentence that an athlete would never say. That means you can’t decide about your life because everything is already determined.”

There are no regulations that say she has to take part in every race, she says. «But when I start, I should automatically take on countless commitments at the same time. It’s about me doing the best I can to be successful in the race.” Taking part in a public draw for the starting number the evening before the start, completing an interview marathon after every race, appearing at this or that press conference: it is disrespectful that all of this is taken for granted.

Other athletes have said the same thing or something similar. Outsiders cannot 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.

In the film “Aiming High” about the 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’m number 1 now.” In the end she was still not satisfied. The success cost her so much of her life that she felt: “It doesn’t work like that.”

Now she has created calm zones for herself, and when she gets out of them, she can deliver where it counts most: Lara Gut-Behrami has never driven as strongly and consistently as she did last winter. That’s amazing because she had 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.

In the spring she spoke of what would probably be the last season, but now that seems less clear. This also indirectly has to do with a change in her private team. At the 2024 World Cup final, Gut-Behrami had to find out that her coach Alejo Hervas was abandoning her and becoming Marco Odermatt’s conditioning coach. She confronted Hervas and sent him home. Then she had to look for 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. That showed her that even when she’s over 30, you can try to push your limits even further. “Changes are always good,” says the athlete, “and that made me want to maybe continue another season.”

First the knee was damaged, then I caught the flu

When it came to sports, Gut-Behrami always said that the greatest thing for her was making perfect turns on a closed track, and she could only do that in racing. This has now been put into perspective. Last winter she went skiing alone for the first time in 15 years, she said in Sölden. She probably has to get used to this type of sport and feel that it’s not so bad after all.

For now it’s just about the racing mode, the season opens on Saturday on the Rettenbach glacier high above Sölden. Gut-Behrami has mixed feelings about the race. On the one hand, she knows that she is ready to ski. Unlike in 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, during training in South America, she received a blow to her left knee, which has been particularly sensitive since a cruciate ligament tear in 2017. After that, there were days when the pain was so bad that she couldn’t bend her knee. An MRI showed nothing was broken, but a break was essential.

The athlete then wanted to rebuild her muscles with a block in the weight room, but she came down with the flu. She couldn’t eat or drink for four days and lay in bed for a week. And in the process she lost strength again. Recently she was able to train well, but because the muscles are not strong enough to support the knee, she lacks a little self-confidence. She will also find out what that means when she pushes herself out of the starting house.