In the slalom discipline this season, Germane entered the top ten in the World Cup races several times and won 8th place three times. At the end of an excellent season, she also had the opportunity to compete in the World Finals, where Jennifer won 14th place, participating only the best 25 alpine skiers.
Jennifer has been on skis since she was less than three years old. Since the age of eight, she spends winters in the mountain countries of Europe.
Dāvids Ernstreits: During this season in Latvia, it seems that many people found out that you are in this world. How much is in your head and how much is in your feet from what you have done in alpine skiing this year?
Jennifer German: I would say 50/50 – head and feet.
What is it like when success comes, when more and more people start writing about you, they start expecting you?
I don’t know, maybe that first competition showed that I could be there. After the first competition in the World Cup, that stress fell away and I could just ski.
You belong there. How long have you been home? All that hiding and glacier stuff – how much is it in your daily life now?
I returned from the last spring training last Monday. With the weather and snow, it was as it was. We had to sit at home for a few days because the conditions were not ideal. Now it’s all for a while – until the end of summer.
How many races were there this year when it felt like real winter?
There wasn’t much. It was really quite warm this season.
Such a completely atypical question – is dreaming in your nature?
I wouldn’t say – dreaming. There are already some goals, but I think that more work needs to be done, then we will see what happens.
Rather, that chain is a goal, purposefulness, work? So dreaming is somewhere in between?
Yes, you could say that.
As for dreams, this year is special for you. January 7 – 12th place in slalom, Latvia’s best achievement of all time. January 16 – 8th place in slalom at the World Cup. Two weeks later, February 3 – gold in the junior championship. Then there are again two 8th place in slalom. How do you deal with it at your age?
I don’t know what age matters there…
A young man…
Skiing has been in the first place for me since childhood, it is everyday. It seems quite natural. Of course, there is some pressure to do something better than in the last competition. I try to take it easy.
It’s cool, but the environment you find yourself in, especially in the second race, when you’re maybe faster than the world legends… Are you so used to it that it’s self-evident and you’re boiling together in that pot?
Not really. This year, with all the results, it, if not quite confirmed, gave me the belief that I can be up there. Also the fact that I improved the result in many competitions, especially at the very beginning. Of course, in the second races it changes, when the numbers are in reverse order, then the best race last. Then it seems to be a bit fairer. There are more than 30 riders in the first race, then from the very back it is more difficult to get ahead due to the snow condition. If, for example, there is ice on a mountain, then everyone is pretty similar, even.
What a day with that weather. I think alpine skiing is greatly influenced by all external factors.
You approach this matter very pragmatically. We see the results, but most people may not fully understand their nuances – which of these results makes you straighten your back the most? Knowing, for example, that the competitors stayed on the track the most, or “I really drove the best.”
I think that 8th place in the penultimate competition in Ore in the spring, already the third 8th place, was such an achievement of the season for me. I know that in the second run I left a bit at the end of the track because there was room to do better. I know exactly from which to which point I could have done better. In general, there were difficult courses, all girls had close results in terms of time. I thought it was the best.
How much do you watch each other? I saw in the material transferred by my colleague Aleksandra Straume that you rode downhill in training. The men who were standing on the side of the track, all their heads went along with how you drive. And they weren’t Latvians…
Yes. In training, we are all on the same hill when there are official practices a few days before the competition. All the teams are there at the same time, there are several tracks, next to each other. Of course they wink at each other there.
Eyewitness. The talent in the cradle. Jennifer German
Who is your benchmark?
E-talons?
Your standard.
I do not know…
What are you looking at?
Of course, [Mikaelu] I would like to watch Shifrin, she is currently the highest in women’s skiing, but she is very often not in official training. She is somewhere training by herself, you can see her quite rarely. Of course, there are young riders like Zrinka Lutic from Croatia, who is a year younger than me. She has already reached a few World Cup podiums. Of course, they also look at other girls.
It’s a guideline that anything is possible?
Yes, it’s a cool feeling that it’s not just the older athletes with more experience who could be on the podium.
What will this season change in your life in purely practical terms? What will be the consequences of this brilliant season?
At the moment, the most positive thing is that I have finished the season without any injuries.
For the last three years, I have had major or minor injuries in the spring, so during the summer period I don’t really manage to get my physical preparation to where it should be.
There are always several steps back and then you have to try to get back on your feet instead of continuing to build on what has already been. This year I am in a good place now and can continue to build further.
It’s about yourself, building your physical form, but the support from the outside – is it palpable? Is there interest from sponsors, from Latvians?
From the Latvians, I would say, less in terms of sponsors. However, there is interest and various companies with whom contracts have been signed at the end of the season. It will make life a little easier next season.
What is your status in the Latvian Olympic team??
I was transferred to the A squad in the middle of the year. Of course, it is also a very big difference for next season.
Is that how you are valued? This is not the story that if you are not TOP3…
Yes, this year is already good.
This year, all the successes are in slalom. What do you see – do you need to apply other disciplines for versatility, development? How do you see your future?
In terms of training, definitely. When training in other disciplines, you also get a sense of speed – from speed disciplines it can also be transferred to slalom. Of course, I get something from each discipline. But competitively, the giant slalom fell out for me this year because we tried it at the New Zealand camp in the summer at the beginning of the season, but my knee didn’t feel as good in that discipline compared to the slalom. Then we decided that we will focus on one thing, we will get it as it should be – at a good level. After that, we will look for something else to add.
Now you are at the same point with thoughts about the future?
Let’s add a little more to giant slalom training.
Downhill – your mother’s specialty in the 1980s. The 4th place for a Latvian in the speed discipline, which she had in the downhill World Cup, where you still have to beat her. Can you even imagine that?
Sometime several years ahead – maybe yes. I have had some training when I was younger. Of course, the level is not that high for those tracks either, but it was quite fun to ride something different. I don’t see anything like that at the moment, but maybe in a few years.
What about advice in the family – is it the same as in childhood, or is it decreasing?
I send my mom a video of the training, and then she comments something, but a little less, of course. When she was with me during the seasons, we talked more. Also, we call almost every day.
A team. Tell me, please, how does the “Apex Academy” team work? We have seen similar international teams in other sports, but how does it happen?
It is a sports academy. We study up to the 12th grade. Young athletes have a good opportunity to train and learn. Dinar Dorsh came to me with an offer that they are ready to support me during the season, they have some coaches and also groups after school called post graduate. Athletes come from all kinds of countries who want to spend the one year between school and college skiing before college.
So you all together, friendly in one place?
No, we have it separately. There are school programs and each group, of course, has coaches. After school, those groups also have coaches.
I was in a team with one girl from America, she represents Great Britain. We were two athletes and two coaches, and counted as a European Cup team.
We were the top team for girls. Then we together with two coaches spent the whole season together.
Base location, those European houses are in Italy?
The academy itself is in France, but the groups that don’t have to study and be there on site are in Italy. There are more opportunities for training.
Who do you consider your main coach at the moment? Who works with you the most?
Simone from Italy. He is the head coach. It happened to us that with the World Cup quotas, my teammate did not have the opportunity to ride in the World Cup. Then for us that plan went from the European Cup to the World Cup because I had such unpredictable results. Then it came to a decision – she was going to the European Cup competition. Then we broke up – one coach with one girl, the other with another.
You could see that there was no leuputria. You made the skis yourself, which was a bit surprising, to be honest. Is this a common thing in the World Cup?
No, in the World Cup, the athletes don’t really make their own skis. However, it takes quite a lot of time and energy. Athletes mostly spend that time in the gym or somewhere else. This is not a common thing.
What and how much is needed so that you can be in the hall and not with sandpaper in your hands? I don’t know what you call that instrument…
Of course, the service costs quite a lot – we couldn’t really afford it this season. That’s why we do it ourselves. Sometimes we had to postpone training after skiing because we had to make skis.
For people of my generation who have children growing up, we start to fear a little bit about what happens to them. As in your case, when they leave at the age of eight – are they Latvians at all? You speak wonderful Latvian, but thinking that for most of the year you are somewhere to improve yourself, how do you feel, where probably most of your friends, training partners are not Latvian?
At the moment, my friends are mostly abroad – scattered all over the world.
In recent years, I have noticed that I speak English all winter and when I come home, I even lose some words in Latvian.
I know what to say in English, but that one word is lost somewhere in the Latvian language.
Is the emotional connection still there? Home is home?
Yes, whenever I see at the airport that it is not Frankfurt or Innsbruck, but Riga, I immediately feel like I am at home. I would say that even now in other countries I sometimes feel like I am at home.
Summer plans? When will the first snow come?
We will go to New Zealand this year at the beginning of August, maybe even a little earlier – for a few weeks, because the winter was quite warm for us and we are not sure about the conditions in the Alps.
Do you visualize any future plans, the development of goals? What needs to be done next year?
I am now in the TOP30 World Cup list for next year. The goal is to stay there and improve, of course, going forward.
World Championship?
Yes, also the world championship.
How important and different is it from the World Cup?
Of course, there is a focus on it. We will try to prepare in such a way that the best form is at the time when the world championship is held. Such a fairly even attention to everything.
My wish is quite simple – health. Then, I think, everything will be fine.
Thank you!
2024-04-19 11:40:52
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