You won two Olympic golds in big air. Watching you and Jamie go toe-to-toe in Korea is one of my favorite memories of watching you compete. Waiting for you to drop for that last hit I was so nervous, but already so proud. You dropped, you stomped the cab double 10 and won. All the girls rushed to you, everyone was hugging you. You had a similar one in China in 2022 when you landed cab 12 to take the win. Does one have more weight for you than the other? Korea was really, really special to me because slopestyle was a shit show with the wind, and I felt like a lot of girls got robbed of a fair chance to show their best. At that time, I knew I had tricks that other girls didn’t have yet. Now it’s different. Now there’s so many contenders for the medals. So, in Beijing I had to be like, “Anything can happen today; I’m gonna try my best.” Any of the eight girls in finals could have medaled. It came down to who had the best day. In Korea I felt a bit more like it was mine to lose because I had the back 10 and cab double 9, which other girls didn’t do at that time. But you never can count Jamie out. She’s somehow coming out and putting down a trick she’s never done before. It’s so impressive and I’m so proud of her because she did the perfect front 10 exactly when she needed to do it. She is one of the best athletes I’ve ever seen compete under pressure. I was in second after my first jump and it was super close, so I was unsure what trick to do because there were two options: I could either go bigger on a back 10 because only 3/10 of a point separated us, or do the cab 10, which would win easy enough. I got to the drop-in, and I waited for like five minutes because I was unsure of what to do. The wind was kind of uphill. I asked [my boyfriend] Clemens [Millauer], I asked my coach, and they both said to do whatever felt right. I decided on the cab 10 and I’m so happy it worked out. Having all the girls down there jumping on me when I landed—it’s one of my favorite moments in my career. We had a great party after that too. A great Austrian team house party after that, with everyone coming. It’s not normal in sports in Austria for everyone to be friends with different nations. They asked me how many people wanted to come to the Austrian house and I told them 50—all the snowboarders wanted to come—they were like, “50 people from where?” And I was like, “from everywhere!” It’s special in snowboarding that you celebrate together and that you have such a community. At the Olympics, every other sport sits with their country in the dining hall, but then for the snowboarders it’s this big mix of nations all sitting together. It’s still like that, but it’s changing now with how snowboarding goes more with nationalities and FIS. I hope we can keep it up. It used to be that FIS was just a vessel for halfpipe riders to go to the Olympics every four years. Our entire year was comprised of 10-plus major events that were all driven by snowboarders. Now it’s the opposite, there’s maybe two or three independent events and the rest is FIS. And those three events are invite-only events. X Games and Dew Tour are sick, but young kids need to do FIS because there’s no other way [to compete regularly]. It’s a fully different approach now. I’m one of the last people on tour that came up without a coach. Up until my first Olympics, I did everything by myself. It’s a big change and it’s not all bad, but it also has a lot of potential to get better. On the one hand, the [national] federations are paying for these kids to get the chance to live the snowboarding life that maybe they wouldn’t have been able to afford otherwise. But on the other hand, FIS doesn’t always care about the riders. I’m happy I experienced both and I know how it was before. It is a different thing because it isn’t just about snowboarding. It’s for sure more sport and less about the lifestyle. Also, I feel like FIS is not as marketable. A lot of the kids that are on such a high level don’t even have sponsor support. Now there’s so many at such a high level competing, it’s become more of a serious sport in the last couple years. Do you think it’s driving a wedge between competitive snowboard-ing and the core of snowboarding? Yes. When I started snowboarding it was so cool. It was cool to see video parts from your favorite snowboarders and then see them in competition as well. There was so much personality in it, you knew the riders better, they became your heroes. When you only do FIS, you lose that special touch. Are you aiming for Milan 2026? I don’t know yet. I’ve gone to three Olympics now. I honestly thought I was going to retire from competition after Korea, but then I thought I could still progress and get better. That has always been one of my biggest motivators. I have so much fun progressing and thinking about dream runs or dream tricks that I want to do. A reason I’m drawn to 2026 is the location—Mi-lan is only a four-hour drive from my home. All my friends and family could come watch. I also love Italian food, pasta with tomato sauce. I’m not stressing either. I’m in a phase now where I’m going with the flow and seeing how my body is, how my tricks are. If I see that I’m struggling and I can’t keep up, I’m not going to go. But if I’m healthy, I’m having fun and I can do the tricks, well there is a chance. 076 THE SNOWBOARDER’S JOURNAL
The Snowboarder's Journal The Snowboarder's Journal 21.4: Page 76
