Benjamin Karl shares a fate with Marcel Hirscher. Parted, you have to say by now. Just as the current double Olympic gold medal winner before the games in Pyeongchang was missing only the gold medal, so this is also the last vacant position in the Olympic medal set of the snowboard ace.
Since 2009, Karl has won precious metal at every major event, at the Olympics so far silver in Vancouver (Parallel-RTL) and bronze in Sochi (Parallel slalom)”At home, they have said that silver and bronze are already at home. From this point of view, it’s clear what’s on the menu next,”says the 32-year-old.
Not so long ago, no one would have expected him to win the Olympics; after all, Karl had only injured himself badly at his right foot in December. In the middle of January, in the last possible race, he qualified for Pyeongchang – with a victory:”I was a little more nervous than usual,”admits the Lower Austrian. But it went well, which is why he can now put it in a nutshell:”It’s about gold!
“If only one seat counts, then the tension is already quite great, but that’s good for me”, the handling of this pressure is no problem for Karl. Also because it won’t be his last chance.”I’ll probably be there in four years. But what you have, you have it,”he would prefer to fill the gold gap by 2018.
All in all, the possibilities in his sport are limited compared to others “We snowboarders don’t have that many chances. We envy the biathlon colleagues who have six medal chances. I’d have to start six times at the Olympics to do that, and that won’t be a problem any more,”says Karl.
He’s right about that. While during the biathlon in sprint, pursuit, single, mass start, relay and mixed relay, Karl and his colleagues have to put everything into a single competition, the parallel RTL in 2018.
Karl doesn’t have a plausible explanation for his successful series of major events,”says Ester Ledecka:” I’m snowboarding and have fun with it,”the preparation looks exactly like any other race. But the anticipation is always enormous at such events, because the attention is greater,”says Karl.”That’s not always the case with us, but it’s good for me if there’s more response from the people.”