January 2022. Johannes Strolz causes a sensation at the slalom in Adelboden.
The Vorarlberger, who was kicked out of the ÖSV the previous summer due to a lack of results, drove to his first World Cup victory on the Chuenisbärgli with start number 38.
A month later, three Olympic medals dangled around the then 29-year-old’s neck, two of them gold.
Last winter, the shooting star of winter 2021/22 wanted to prove that he was not a one-hit wonder – and failed.
Six failures in nine slaloms this season, in the remaining three Strolz was never better than twelfth.
This winter also started suboptimally for the Vorarlberger with a failure in the slalom in Gurgl. Since then, Strolz, who has since slipped back in the starting list, has been fighting his way back.
“I notice that the shape curve is pointing upwards. It’s definitely improving, I feel good. I don’t think I should think about it much.”
Let the ski live
Of course, that is easier said than done. Because it is precisely the head that reliably follows the rest of the body. Strolz is currently missing the often cited ease and naturalness of racing.
“I don’t let the ski work enough, I have to release it better. Sometimes I’m not doing what the ski is capable of,” explains Strolz.
This applies especially to striking terrain transitions. “I’m still doing it with too much effort, not playfully. That ultimately also costs the speed. You have to let the ski live and not cut it off. Those are the three or four tenths per run that would bring better placements .”
After failing in the first slalom of the season in Gurgl, the Vorarlberg native consistently placed between 15th and 18th in Madonna, Adelboden, Wengen and Kitzbühel. Most recently at the Ganslernhang he finished 15th in a difficult race with many failures.
“I had sections that were very fast,” says Strolz, another small step forward.
“When the slope can no longer catch me, I dare”
Especially in the lower parts of the route, things are heading in the right direction again. “If I notice that the slope can no longer hold as I head towards the finish, then I dare to release the ski fully. That’s how the good times come about. It’s important to show that in the upper sections too. I really have to show consistency and confidence right from the first goal.”
And again you have to say: Easier said than done. Going through from the first to the last goal takes effort and a high degree of concentration.
Strolz and the matter of patience
“I just have to stay patient now and not start trying to force it. You can’t buy trust, you have to earn it,” says Strolz, who had similar phases earlier in his career when things didn’t go his way desired.
That’s why he speaks from experience when he says: “I’m terribly impatient. I’d like everything to work immediately the way I imagine it.”
“But I’ve often had to acknowledge that it just doesn’t work that way in this sport. If the next steps don’t work out as quickly as I would like, I still have to stick with it “I’ve been doing it for the last time. Because it just went in a good direction,” says Strolz.
“The last bit is also something that you can’t plan for, it has to happen in a certain way.”
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