Olympia 2018: Anna Gasser:”This is my greatest success”

Austria’s first medal winners of the last Olympic week of the Games in Pyeongchang received their deserved awards in festive ceremonies on Thursday evening (local time). First snowboarder Anna Gasser won gold for her big air triumph, followed by Michael Matt with bronze for third place in the men’s slalom. The Nordic Combineers will be honoured on Friday.

Gasser was honored on the top flight by IOC member Barry Maister, a former New Zealand hockey player. The 69-year-old congratulated the medal winners as well as FIS Vice President Paine Dexter with his youthful congratulations. At Matt, his compatriot and ÖOC president Karl Stoss as well as Swiss downhill Olympic champion Bernhard Russi congratulated him.

“It makes me overjoyed. I’m glad that everything went well,”said Gasser in an interview with ORF. She clearly enjoyed the celebration.”This is such a beautiful moment. This is certainly my greatest achievement so far. I’ve handled everything in the last few years, that’s all I need. I would like to thank everyone who supported me. I don’t know what that means for my future career. The fact that the sport may become a little better known is the greatest gift.”

Incidentally, the Carinthian will have to choose between two festivities on Tuesday. On the one hand, the reception of the ÖOC team takes place on Salzburg’s Kapitelplatz, where it would be very welcome as one of the four gold medal winners so far. On the other hand, Gasser is also invited to Monaco for the Laureus World Sports Awards at the same time, as she is nominated in the category “Action sportsman”.

Matt also enjoyed the moments of glory:”After the first run, I was already frustrated,”he recalled about ten hours back,”but you always have to finish two runs, I’m very happy about the bronze scene,” The unexpected podium finish made the achievements special for him:”As the race progressed today, the bronze scene shines like a golden one. You have to do what you can, not more or less.”