It was said five years ago when Lara Gut-Behrami married that she probably wanted a baby soon and was resigning. Now she has the chance to win the overall World Cup.
The first podium: 16-year-old Lara Gut came third in the downhill in St. Moritz in 2008.
Christian Hartmann / Reuters
When Lara Gut-Behrami laughed, she included the whole world. It was a child’s laugh, open, fresh and loud, suggesting accessibility. It swept through the living rooms of Switzerland like a fresh breeze in 2008 when the 16-year-old from Ticino stood on a podium for the first time after a fall in the finish area. And it helped shape an image that the skier would fight against over the next 15 years.
When Gut-Behrami recorded her first successes at the end of the 2000s, there was still the category of skiing darlings, i.e. the women who, at best, won medals that they beamed with the nation. In a male-dominated society, ski sweethearts were a kind of perfect housewives on the slopes, a bit staid, but always nice and cheerful. And didn’t Lara Gut, as she was called back then, fit the mold perfectly?
Snarky, short, unfriendly
It didn’t fit at all. Female ski stars before her probably didn’t have a different experience, but the Ticino woman protested. Being seen as a pretty blonde irritated her. In a documentary that follows her rise, she leafs through the “Schweizer Illustrierte,” which has a cover story about her. “Blonde, blue eyes, too much make-up,” she looks like Barbie. “I just don’t feel that way,” she said.
In another scene, the 17-year-old is sitting on a staircase with a railing behind her; it is narrow. The interviewer asks what goals she is setting for herself this year. “I know what I want,” says Gut-Behrami, letting the fringe fall over his eyes, “I don’t talk about it.” A voice from the off comments: “Headstrong, almost stubborn, she protects herself from the public’s curiosity.”
Gut-Behrami remained almost stubborn. She took on the ski association to ensure that it supported the private team with her father as coach. The family moved forward with a determination that one could find selfish. And it undermined the expectations of journalists, sponsors and the public. Not always elegant: At times she was stroppy, abrupt, unfriendly.
The tabloids hit back: in 2011, “Blick” named her the winner in a “bitch world championship.” “The Swiss woman is sweet and sexy, but unfortunately she has no interest in journalists,” he wrote. Gut-Behrami had to endure border crossings that only women experience. As a racing driver, Lara is already world-class, the Italian Christof Innerhofer told “Blick” in 2011, “but if she wants to become a good lover, she still has a lot to learn.”
The fact that she repelled the nation’s embrace was reflected in the election of Female Athlete of the Year, the annual people’s tribunal before Christmas. She won the award in 2016 when she won the overall World Cup. But when she became world champion in Super G and giant slalom in 2021, the honor went to tennis player Belinda Bencic.
Lara Gut-Behrami had to grow up under the public eye, in front of an audience that constantly expected victories. A requirement that the athlete did not understand, probably because she knows what it takes. There were other athletes who were in constant tension with the audience. Alex Frei wasted time in his career as captain of the national soccer team, and he also claimed more understanding.
Arrived: Lara Gut in November 2023.
Jean-Christophe Bott / Keystone
But young women are even more trapped in stereotypes. Lara Gut-Behrami could either be the radiant available beauty or a bitch. The headstrong adult woman is not intended – especially not in sport, which is still a male-dominated society. That’s why moving to Genoa with her husband Valon Behrami in 2020 was such a liberation: no one saw her as the sunshine she used to be, but as the woman she was.
Perhaps it was a protective reflex that divided her personality; In her own perception there was always Lara as a person and as an athlete. The two roles had already been established in childhood. For the trainer father as well as for the mother, two Laras existed early on: the daughter and the super talent.
She had to seriously injure herself to become aware of the mechanism. After tearing her cruciate ligament in 2017, when she was forced to take a break after years in the hamster wheel, she said in the second documentary film made about her: “I ask myself: What have I done as a person in the last few years? I always put the athlete before the people.”
The theme runs through the few major interviews in recent years, in which she provided deep insights and repeatedly spoke of phases that felt like a dark hole. In 2018 she said in the NZZ: “I suffered the most not as an athlete, but as a person. I did everything for myself as an athlete; in this role I was uncompromising. But when something happened to me as a human being, I didn’t fight it. I let it happen and just wanted to watch the sport.” If she could go back to the beginning, she said, she would try to assert herself not only as an athlete, but also as a person.
Not using social media costs them a lot of money
Many athletes who work in a highly competitive environment are familiar with the struggle for the person who has to take a backseat to the athlete. What makes Lara Gut-Behrami special is that she made such a good projection surface as a beautiful, young woman. When she married footballer Valon Behrami in 2018 and had a poor sporting season, it was said that she would soon become pregnant and end her career. The scroll pictures are still easy to have at hand.
Lara Gut-Behrami reacted in her own way. She has withdrawn radically. Not only is she no longer giving interviews, she has stopped all activity on social media. With the decision she bought privacy, but also gave up a lot of money.
For the second time after 2016: ski ace Lara Gut-Behrami is named Swiss athlete of the year. #srfsport #Ski #SportsAwards https://t.co/V9WuToIWlK
— SRF Sport (@srfsport) December 10, 2023
It gives people more space and time, which benefits the athlete. Eight years after her greatest triumph, she has another chance to become the best skier in the world due to Mikaela Shiffrin’s injury-related absence. And last December, Lara Gut-Behrami became Sportswoman of the Year for the second time – without having won a major title. At 32 years old, she has obviously reached the audience. But above all with yourself.
An article from “NZZ am Sonntag”