Skiing
Franjo von Allmen: How joy and risk built a ski champion
Franjo von Allmen’s rise in downhill skiing has been anything but ordinary – shaped by loss, motocross and a fearless approach that changed the Swiss speed team.
Before Franjo von Allmen became one of Switzerland’s most successful Winter Olympians – winning three gold medals – he was already the great disruptor of Swiss downhill skiing. This interview was conducted shortly before his Olympic triumphs, at a time when he had just shaken up the World Cup with a fearless rise to the top.
He arrived with a bang. Franjo von Allmen was the new star of the Swiss downhill team – equally at home on the world’s steepest pistes as on the roughest motocross tracks.
January 2024, Kitzbühel. For the first time, von Allmen stands in the start gate of the most famous downhill race in the world. Below him, the Streif drops away like a shaft. He knows the Mausefalle is coming – the Mousetrap – followed by a jump that launches skiers up to 80m through the air. He wants to focus entirely on that section. But another thought intrudes – an unwritten rule.
Keeping it casual in Zinal
© Philipp Mueller
Anyone starting here for the first time pushes out of the gate three times. Not because it’s necessary – on the contrary, no one needs extra momentum on a slope this steep – but because it proves you belong. Three pole pushes mean: I’m all in.
von Allmen is determined. Of course he is. He's not someone who overthinks things. He wants to drop in like you jump into cold water – no hesitation. So he sets off and counts in his head: one, two… was that three already? The doubt lasts only a split second. But doubt is more dangerous than any compression on the Streif. So he pushes once more – four strokes instead of three, just to be sure.
It makes no difference in time. But it says everything about this young skier from the Bernese Oberland. He would rather risk losing at the bottom with the perfect line than hesitate at the top.
01
A rapid rise in a discipline built on experience
High expectations: during summer training in Zermatt
© Lorenz Richard/Red Bull Content Pool
Born in the summer of 2001, von Allmen is a man of speed in every sense. On skis, certainly – but also in the way he climbed to the top. His breakthrough did not creep up quietly. It exploded.
In only his third World Cup start, in December 2023, he finished ninth in the Super-G in Val Gardena. A few weeks after his Kitzbühel debut came his first podium – third place in the Super-G in Garmisch-Partenkirchen. All in his first season.
His second year was emphatic: 17 World Cup races, 12 top-ten finishes, seven podiums, three victories. The highlight came in February 2025 at the World Championships in Saalbach – downhill gold at just 23, the youngest world champion in the discipline since 1989.
Franjo von Allmen is always the on attack
© Getty Images
Franjo von Allmen in the 2024 Downhill World Cup race in Beaver Creek, USA
© Getty Images
His ascent was remarkable above all because it happened in downhill, the one event where experience counts most. Courses barely change from year to year. Those who have raced them often know every camber, every bump, every decisive section. It is a little like Formula One, with one key difference: in motor racing, you can learn a circuit in the simulator. In downhill skiing, you get two training runs. Then it counts.
At the start of the 2025–26 season, which begins in earnest in the USA in late November, von Allmen embodied two opposites: the exuberance of a boy and the composure of a veteran. At 24 years old, it seemed as if he possessed experience before he had time to gather it.
Where did that come from?
02
No master plan – just belief and instinct
You might assume it was years of meticulous planning, ambitious parents, a carefully mapped pathway from childhood – the model followed by many Swiss stars.
None of that applied to Franjo von Allmen.
Franjo wants to know his mistakes, but does not dwell on them
© Getty Images
That he reached the top of a sport that demands money, equipment, and early commitment was the result of an improbable mix: a measure of luck, resilience and perhaps an inner calling.
On a warm early summer morning – one of the rare times skiers are not consumed by their sport – von Allmen sits on a hotel terrace overlooking Lake Thun. Leaning back in a wicker chair, he looks even broader than he does on television. Short hair, open face, quick, mischievous eyes. He laughs often – sometimes shyly, sometimes because he can see how unusual his story sounds. There is something playful and effortless about him.
Even his speech reflects it. He rarely says “I”. Instead, he says “you” or “one”. “Then you just start skiing.” Or: “You don’t really think about what might come of it.” It creates distance, a small shield against attention. And it makes everything sound less about him, more about the place he comes from – as if that is simply how life works between these mountains.
03
Growing up between slopes and hairpin bends
Franjo von Allmen grew up in Boltigen, Switzerland. Skiing was automatic. In winter, it was as natural as playing football in the playground elsewhere. After school, he would head up the mountain and stay until the lifts closed – and if there was enough snow, glide straight to his front door at dusk. He built jumps, tried tricks, skied on one leg, often off piste. “Just the kind of things boys do,” he says, laughing. Racing was secondary.
Whether on snow or in the dirt, Franjo lays hard in the curves
© Marco Büchel
During the breaks in the season, Franjo travels with his bike
© Marco Büchel
Eventually the Swiss system did its work. He joined the regional performance centre, trained more seriously, grew more ambitious. “Over time you just get more into it.”
Why stick with it? “It might sound cheesy,” he says, pausing briefly, “but when everything comes together – the snow, the speed, the mountains, the skis that suddenly feel part of you – I just love it.”
In summer, he chased that same feeling on two wheels. Just outside Boltigen lies the Jaun Pass, a favourite among motorcyclists for its sweeping views and tight hairpins. For someone with racing in his veins, it was irresistible. First, an old trials bike from his father, and later a supermoto. “You’d just ride up and down until you were done.”
Eventually, he and his best friend realised it could become dangerous. The solution was motocross. “If you fall there, no one complains. You can really push without putting anyone at risk.”
Since then, each off-season has meant road trips across Switzerland – sometimes into Italy, France or Germany – from track to track. A van, a mattress, spare parts. If they get hungry, they stop for a bite. That is enough. “You’re outside, you smell the earth, the fuel, the air. Every lap’s different. The ground changes, you react instantly.”
04
Loss, doubt and a turning point
School was harder. Sitting still did not suit him. Early on, he decided to learn a trade, even if skiing remained just a hobby. He found an apprenticeship with the carpentry firm in Zweisimmen. “As long as your grades are good, you can take the time you need,” his boss told him.
Then, in 2019, everything shifted. At 17, von Allmen lost his father unexpectedly. Grief was followed by practical uncertainty – could he afford equipment, travel, training? Could he continue at all?
Franjo has a great support system helping him achieve his dreams
© Lorenz Richard/Red Bull Content Pool
Friends encouraged him to try. Together with his mother, sister, and brother, he set up a small crowdfunding campaign to find supporters for one winter. Enough people believed. He carried on.
05
Managing risk at 130kph
When he reached the World Cup, he encountered another stroke of fortune: speed coach Reto Nydegger. A former youth court official in Biel, later a ski instructor in Australia, Nydegger had celebrated major successes with Norway’s team. He is not a man chasing quick wins. He listens.
von Allmen was also fortunate to join a squad led by Marco Odermatt – someone willing to face the media and absorb pressure.
Marco Odermatt and Franjo von Allmen celebrate together
© Joerg Mitter/Red Bull Content Pool
Downhill skiers have more in common with mountaineers or base jumpers than with endurance athletes. Crashes happen. Every few years, there are fatalities. There is no point denying it.
“If I make a mistake,” von Allmen says, “I think briefly about how to fix it. But I don’t watch it five times on replay. That would make you feel bad – and that’s the last thing you need in the start gate.”
He neither ignores the risk nor lets it paralyse him.
After his first season, a narrative emerged that he needed to be restrained. At the opening race of 2024–25 in Beaver Creek, too many voices told him to be careful in key sections. The result was a mental block – 2.2 seconds off the pace, 28th place.
Franjo von Allmen in January 2025 at the Super-G at the Streif in Kitzbühel
© Erich Spiess/Red Bull Content Pool
Nydegger stepped in. From then on, only he would discuss tactics with von Allmen. In the next three downhills, he finished second each time. Then came three victories – including World Championship gold.
More winter wonders
06
Speed with respect
The season ended. von Allmen returned to Boltigen for the summer, sharing a flat in the family home with his brother. There were more media requests than ever – sponsor events, receptions and interviews. He enjoys them. But he feels most at ease in his small motorbike garage or out on a dirt track.
Motocross is almost as wild as downhill skiing – with one difference: no one is timing it. Whether a lap takes 18 or 22 seconds does not matter. It is still about finding the perfect line, reacting to changing terrain. Above all, it is about enjoyment.
When the snow cannons start again, he swaps engines. Back on skis, play turns into precision. The boy who once treated every hillside as a playground has learned to channel his love of speed into controlled aggression.
That is how he races today – with the freedom that made him great, and the respect that gets him to the finish safely. It is a rare balance. It propelled him to world titles, and later to three Olympic gold medals. And in a discipline that demands experience, it may yet keep him there for years to come.
