She is only 23 years old, but she is already part of the Austrian women's national alpine skiing slalom team. Katharina Liensberger is one of the participants of the World Cup in Jasná, who won two gold medals at the recent World Championships in Italy and is second after Petra Vlhová in the World Cup slalom ranking.
Five years ago she was not among the racers in Jasná. She was only 18 back then and had only two starts in the World Cup with no points behind her. However, she recorded a huge progress since then and is one of the best slalom racers in the world. “I am here for the first time. I am very much looking forward to the races,” revealed the Austrian smiling. Her unusual hobby is playing a haro. “It is a great relax for me, it allows me to gain new mental strength. So if I have a chance, I always like to play,” said Katharina Liensberger.
She shared also her feelings after the mentioned World Championships, where she triumphed in both slalom and parallel giant slalom, in giant slalom she took bronze. “I have many nice memories from the World Championships. I was very happy about it, but I already managed to absorb it and to calm down. So I can concentrate on Jasná,“ said Katharina Liensberger, who hopes she has some fans in Slovakia. “I believe that I will gain much more of them,” she confessed.
Why it is that she became successful on the slopes only lately and she is collecting podium standings in the World Cup only now? “I profit from an amazing summer preparation this season. I was training a lot during the corona crisis. All about the pandemics exhausted me, but I do my best and it works,” she continued. She also added a few words about her rival in the fight for a small crystal globe in slalom, Petra Vlhová: “Petra is very strong and she always does her best. She always wants to win.”
She also added her possible solution of Saturday's slalom so that fans from both Slovakia and Austria will be satisfied. “If it is true that Petra should win, then I hope that we will both be the first with the same time,” she added. In the calculation of her successes are also silver medals from the Winter Olympic Games 2018 and World Championships 2019, in both cases from team parallel competition.
