Skiing
World Cup winner Lara Gut has skied professionally since she was 14. She talked to us about what her career hopes are for the future.
Lara Gut literally crashed onto the world stage in St Moritz in February 2008. The then 16-year-old was en route to win her career first World Cup downhill when she her lost balance on the last jump, and crashed over the finish line with one ski. She ended up finishing in third place. But that was just the beginning!
Now 23, Gut has reached a whole new level. In 2014, she has won her first World Cup globe, in addition to claiming her first overall World Cup podium and seven season victories.
The only way to reach new levels is with passion
"I've always loved skiing," says Gut. "This year it was different though. After all those years of training, I was finally able to ski faster and it's been amazing."
Lara also just finished high school, in June, simultaneously with her brother Ian, who is 19. She has been studying privately since 2006. No school, no lessons, no classmates, just learning on her own, her schedule permitting. In fact, the last time Lara went to a normal school was in the final year of secondary school in Lugano, where she missed three and half months of classes.
That's because Lara turned professional when she was just 14. The season after she already scored top results in the European Cup and qualified for a personal World Cup starting place.
It went really quick for me. I never had the time to realise what was really going on, everything came so fast
Skiing is a family matter for the Guts. "My dad was a skier, my mum is a physical training instructor, and my aunt's present for my first birthday was a pair of skis," she says. Today, Family Gut has become Team Gut, a family enterprise supporting Lara and Ian's ski careers.
"It's simple. No one will spend more energy and time helping you fulfil your dreams than your family. We are lucky that our dad can help us on the slopes, and our mum manages the back office both at home, and with sponsors and partners. That way we can be 100 percent focused on skiing," she says.
For Lara, skiing is her life and her passion. "I ski because I know I can be better day-by-day. I'm not skiing for records, or points or anything – I just want to be faster and faster. 'Stay hungry' is my motto."
But Lara is also curious to learn and to see the world, not just ski. "I'm trying to decide what to study since I definitely want to study further. But it's not so easy to combine school and skiing. Sometimes I also think it would be cool to travel the world, deciding daily whether to take a plane to Melbourne or Shanghai or Rio de Janeiro. But I know that I will have time to do that after my career, so I'm fine with it!"
Travel, study... the future is full of possibilities. But right now Lara is not just busy working in the family business – she *is* the family business!
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