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Bernhard Russi only has positive memories of Rosi Mittermaier.
Bernhard RussiBlick columnist
Rosi Mittermaier fell asleep. She left us. According to her family, after a serious illness, she passed peacefully at the age of 72 surrounded by her loved ones.
She closed her eyes, which shone for everyone and everything. Your heart has stopped beating. The heart that touched everyone and had room for everyone. Rosi probably still has that smile on her face that drew everyone like a magnet.
A lovely smile for beautiful and less beautiful moments. We all loved her because she always made us all feel like loved ones.
For all of us, Rosi was a buddy, girlfriend, sister and role model, snow princess and dream. Everything packed behind a huge respect, as an athlete and down-to-earth woman.
Rosi wasn’t always the fastest on skis, but from her debut in the World Cup in 1969 until her retirement in 1976, I considered her to be the world’s best skier. Her technique, her dancing mobility between the poles, her feeling for the element of snow, for nature and for the mountains were close to perfection.
Despite all this, there was a volcanic willingness to fight within her. In order to understand this, you have to look back at the starting phase of the downhill at the Olympic Games in Innsbruck, for example.
An almost impossible course setting forced the riders into an almost horizontal traverse for about 20 m to the first gate. So the descent began unusually with a cross-country sprint rather than a nosedive. Up to and including start number 8, all the women found it difficult to get up to speed and up to speed. Then it was number 9’s turn, Rosi Mittermaier! With a spirited push-off, Rosi catapulted herself out of the starting gate and immediately began a rhythmic half-skate step. A locomotion that was previously only known in cross-country skiing by the Finn Pauli Siitonen.
I still ask myself how and where Rosi got this inspiration from. After this demonstration, the competitors were checkmated and the race was decided. And Rosi crowned herself Queen of the 1976 Olympic Games in Innsbruck with two gold and one silver medal.
The ski world was enthusiastic and applauded. And in silence we all thought almost reverently: “Great, our Rosi won!” It will be difficult to find a country that has triggered such a wave of enthusiasm after a similar sporting achievement by a woman as the Mittermaier mania rolled across Germany at the time.
Football, tennis, handball, biathlon, ice hockey and other sports were no longer an issue overnight. Ski, snow and Rosi were on everyone’s lips, on all front pages, in all TV shows. Rosi here and Rosi there. The postman brought her tens of thousands of letters in the days after her Olympic triumphs, she once said in an interview. It wasn’t the double gold or the additional silver that fascinated people, it was Rosi, the woman behind it all who always gave everyone the feeling: “Everything is fine, but please don’t exaggerate . I love you all!”
In public, with all her upsides and downsides, Rosi behaved brilliantly, but she never looked for it herself. Her life was family. Her parents, sisters and then Christian, her husband, children Felix and Ameli always had priority. No one was ever in Rosi’s shadow, everyone was allowed to warm up in her sunshine until yesterday.
It is the warmth that remains from Rosi. It will last a long time.
Attention ski fans! Now quiz and type races
The 2022/2023 ski season is coming up and with it the “Blick Ski Trophy”: answer questions every day, type ski races and crown yourself as ski champion. Lots of great prizes await.
To take part in the “Blick Ski Trophy”, you have to register here.
Have fun and good luck!
The 2022/2023 ski season is coming up and with it the “Blick Ski Trophy”: answer questions every day, type ski races and crown yourself as ski champion. Lots of great prizes await.
To take part in the “Blick Ski Trophy”, you have to register here.
Have fun and good luck!