Interview with Rainier Schoenfelder,
December 3, 2004, Beaver Creek, Colorado.
by Stan Petrash
Q: Rainier, you are arguably the best technical skier right now, what would be your advice to young racers learning technique?
RS: One thing that you have to learn is when you are a child, or you can learn it later, of course, is working hard in training. There are many skiers that are not the best technical skiers… In every sport, in golf, for example, Vijay Singh, the present number one… they all say that he is not the best talent, and, of course, he’s number one…The training, the hard effort, pushing himself, and in skiing is the same…
Q: How do you think Bode Miller manages to accomplish what he does? Very few people who can do both downhill and slalom, well, slalom maybe not as good as you, but he’s fast…
RS: He’s fast but not as consistent maybe, but, that’s his style…
Q: So, for you, the goal is not necessarily speed, but consistency?
RS: Yes, really… [pauses, looking serious] We have to point out one really important thing, Bode, with his last eight, ten years… if he would be an Austrian, he would not race anymore, he would have to do something else. No, seriously, that’s true, that’s a fact, and nobody has to forget that.
Q: Why you’d think so, because they [Austrian federation] would not let him?
RS: Well, you very well know, when Bode had three years in a row, when he raced on K2 skis, he could not finish a race, 42 races he went out, or something like that… [actually, according to FIS, 39 DNFs, 14 DSQs and 14 DNQs from 1998 to 2000] I think in Austria it’s not possible, three years like that and you’re out.
Q: Because it is too competitive [in Austria]…
RS: Yeah, because there are so many, because if it’s not you, it’s the next one is here… and that’s the great problem… So Bode had enough time, NO pressure, to train his style of skiing. And now, he’s perfect, of course. But most [of us], no time…You have, maybe, one year, and then, you have to be good. And that’s the reason why many of our guys, they are forced to race in one discipline, maybe two, to have a place in the WorldCup, and then, maybe, you have a chance to come back to the downhill, but then, then it’s over, then, it’s really, like Benjamin Raich, he has problems to be fast in the downhill, because so many years he was just [raced] slalom and giant slalom, to become a good skier there. And Bode… he did other things, just like he wanted, and he had time… nobody was putting any pressure on him, and now, he is fast and he is consistent too…And that is the problem. And now everybody says that he is not a good skier, of course he is a good skier, because he had so many years to develop his special style of skiing. In Austria, I say it again, Body would be FORCED to race in another style, consistent, more technical, but then he would not be so fast, because consistent is not always fast, sometimes the opposite…
Q: But, you have managed to develop your own style of skiing as well. Do you believe everybody should develop their own style of skiing, consistent with you physique?
RS: You HAVE to. My legs, for example, are not the same length as Bode’s. Look at all the skiers when they go to the salad bar, they put some salad on their plate… How they stand? Somebody stands this style [shows extremely bowlegged stance, toes inward], somebody this style [toes outward, knees together]. And of course, they all race in the same boot, maybe. A racer with this style and that style [shuffles feet again] would race the same boot, so there must be difference in ski technique. So it is not possible, for example, for the racer who is taller than me to race the same style like me. Not possible… This is a rule…
Q: So what would you recommend to somebody who works with young racers, find a person, a WorldCup racer, who is most closely resembles the body of a developing skier? For example, if somebody is 170cm tall, one should not imitate Walchhofer… So everybody should ski the technique that is suitable to their body?
RS: Of course, and there is a little bit of a range, extremely small or large people, they’ll always have problems, but there is always a little bit of a range… But there is another effect. For me, consistency is an important thing. Because, consistency is based on a good technique. Because, then, you can change very quickly, to another length of ski, for example. I was one of the first ones, who was good on the old slalom skis, who had no problems to race with the new ones. Two years ago, when we changed to this new length of skis, to the smaller one, I raced many races with the skis I didn’t race before. Not even one run. Got it the evening before the race. Next day, I got a second one, for freeskiing, then for the race, a completely new one, not a race ski, it was a normal one, which you can buy in the store. And it was not a problem for me, because I knew I had a good technique, and I can race with everything. If there will be a rule next year, that we would have to go back to 210cm slalom skis, it would not be a problem, in the very short time, I would manage it. Other racers would have MANY problems, they would not be in front [of the ranking] of the WorldCup anymore.
Q: Do you think we are moving in the same direction that Formula1 is moving, when you see so much depending on the equipment, and not on the racers themselves?
RS: No, no, not to such great extent like in Formula1. Yesterday, it was one slope. Today, is not the same slope as it was yesterday. Every day, there are different conditions. Every hour, there are different conditions. Formula1 is easy. You have three beautiful days on the circuit, every day is similar, every day is the same turn. Every day when we set the course, every day there are different turns.
Q: That is why they say that slalom skiers have to be smarter, because downhiller race the same course all the time, similar to Formula1 racer…
RS: In the downhill, you know, they race with the skis that are ten years old. There is nothing that changed for the last ten, twenty years. And in slalom, you see, how much it changed. And technique had changed. Now, we have a limit on the length and the sidecut. There only few millimeters there, special [for those] who likes more sidecut, or less sidecut. But when you see me racing with the same length of skis two years ago, it is completely different from now. So we develop ourselves more and more, and there more many more developments in slalom…And in the downhill, when you see Hermann Maier skiing on the same skis three years ago, well maybe he was faster than today. And when you see us [slalom skiers] racing three years ago, there are maybe three, four second difference. And that’s the reason why Bode at the moment when he races all the disciplines, it would be the greatest surprise for me if he would be consistent in slalom this season too.
[Editor's Note: In the next two days after this interview, in both GS and slalom races Bode Miller missed gates and DNF in the first runs. In slalom, Schoenfelder was third.]
RS: He was very consistent last year, but I don’t think he will be this year. [Last year] he could not finish races, but in others he was fast and he got some points and got good ranking. So, I think this year, when he’s fit again, then it’ll be good for him. I think, normally… well in Bode’s case, nothing is normal, but normally he did a lot of work in the SuperG and the downhill, he told this to me, and you see the result. [This morning, Bode won the downhill and was second in the SuperG]. So in slalom, maybe, but the downhill and the SuperG is important for the overall WorldCup. But in slalom, it would be a great problem for him to be consistent. He would risk everything, you know him… He would not slow down and be fifth, maybe, to get some points for the overall, he would go for a win in slalom.
Q: So you would expect to be your major competitor to be not Bode, but Kalle Palander.
RS: Of course… Kalle was very consistent last two year. Kostelic is back, he trained with us. He is, I think, not in [good] shape, I think he will be in shape, I don’t know, he has problems with knees or something… There are many [competitors], you know.
Q: Body was rather dismissive [in his interviews] of Kostelic. He said that he was not impressed with Salomon skis, and he said Kostelic is not going to be a factor.
RS: Well, maybe in the Giant Slalom, because he [Kostelic] would have to concentrate more on slalom more for the moment… You just can’t say it after one race. You can’t say anything for certain about skis, about somebody’s form just after one race. Because it’s [up to the Kostelic] to do it better in his own, to change skis or something... We are in the WorldCup, I can’t say if I’m tenth or twentieth, then it’s the skis’ fault… this is wrong. It’s everybody’s own fault if he is not as fast as possible, not the skis [fault].
Q: Do you think Bode is so fast [in the speed disciplines] because of the skis?
RS: Of course.
Q: A lot of people I spoke to expected him not to do that well in Beaver Creek, because it is so much more technical than Lake Louise…
RS: Ehh.. [With Bode], the whole package is good. He is so confident. Nobody races this special line that he is able to, nobody… because he is so confident and he knows that skis will do that turn with that effort and not more and not less.
Q: Do you think [Bode’s ability] to choose the line would help him more in the downhill than the slalom, because the slalom is less about the line and more about technique.
RS: No, it’s the same with the line… We all realize this and with a lot of training we are able to race that line. For the last three years I was the best among Austrians in the slalom ranking. And I saw them learning from my line. Because I’ve realized very early, with Bode… with the best runs he had, why he is so fast. And others, with the good run, even with the good run, you one second slower, then you have a problem…With mistakes, it’s not a problem, but with the good run [if you one second slower than Bode], you have a problem. And then I watched him and the other racers, who were fast, really fast, who had a lot of speed, I and watched them and then it’s all about the practice…
Q: Do you think you have an advantage, because my impression is, when Bode skis and I goes well, everything is good. When Bode skis and it does not go well, he can’t really correct it. Whereas people like you are able to analyze and correct the mistake. My question is: what’s more important: is it talent, or is it more day-to-day work and analysis?
RS: The great problem Bode has, […] that if there was a day and he had set [up] for a good race and it did not work, and he wasn’t able to change, and he then lost, or he went out. He learned, I think, a lot. So he’s a little more able to race in the races that he had to race [and finish], even if it didn’t went his way, so I think in that sense he is more flexible.
Q: We are talking too much about Bode… Let’s talk a little more about you. You’ve said that you are fascinated by the stock market, that you’ve lost some money in 2000, now that the market is recovered somewhat, did you get the money back?
RS: Yeah, right now I have another line, another focus. In those years, I’ve tried to do [things] in stock market the same way I do in sports, or in my life, with risk. Now I know, it is not possible. I’ve learned, I had to learned in these two years that it is different, that it [stock market] had nothing to do with my life. I’ve realized that my vision of investing money should be different from my vision of life, maybe, totally opposite. And, I had to learn, but it cost me a lot of money.
Q: Any investment advice right now?
RS: Advice?. Oh, no, no… [Laughs] I don’t want to lose you as a friend.
Q: Thank you very much, it was real pleasure talking to you.
