Winter Sports: Nadine Fest: This is Austria’s new ski hope

Withdrawals and series injuries have thinned out Austria’s alpine women’s ski team. The 19-year-old Nadine Fest will therefore come to Sölden in 2017 and thus make its World Cup debut earlier than expected.

The all-rounder from Carinthia is regarded as a great talent, with junior World Championship gold 2017 in Super-G and the estate car as well as gold at the Youth Olympic Games 2016 proving this.

“I come from the beautiful centre of Carinthia,”says Fest describing her background. The junior double world champion is at home in Arriach, not far from Afritz, home of downhill Olympic champion Matthias Mayer. Motivated by her older and also ski racing brother, Fest has grown up on the Gerlitzen as a skier. After finishing secondary school in Radenthein (now NMS) she graduated from the Hotel-Fachschule in Bad Hofgastein. Anna Veith and Marcel Hirscher have also done the same thing, celebrity role models.

“I am very determined, and that is – positively seen – sometimes a bit of a downfall,”said Fest before the start of the World Cup in Sölden. All ÖSV cadres have been in a hurry,”I often stand in my own way,”she admitted.

Despite the debut in Sölden, the European Cup is still the main menu on the festival’s programme for next winter. There she wants to work out a fixed place for the highest league.

“Something between giant slalom and super-G” is her strongest discipline:”If the giant works, it works in super-G”, Fest is convinced. At their age, it is well known that most ÖSV ladies drive practically all disciplines in order to put the ski training on as broad a footing as possible.

I want to drive cool on Saturday and show you everything I can”, emphasized Fest, but it’s obvious that she still has a lot of catching up to do:”But I’m first and foremost happy to be allowed to ride with her and to see how it feels like in the World Cup”.

The prospects for the giant slalom in Sölden are not that bad. The race will be decided mainly in the flatter starting and finishing sections. Ladies boss Jürgen Kriechbaum:”Nadine is not yet in the best class in steepness to be able to keep up with the best. “In the mid-flat to mid-flat sharing, it’s very fast.”