Snowboard veteran Sigi Grabner is ready for one last season

Snowboard veteran Sigi Grabner is ready for one last season

The upcoming winter will mark a very special one for snowboarding icon Sigi Grabner.

The 38-year-old will enter his last season of active racing. A circle of 20 years on top of his game will complete with the 2014 World Cup finals at La Molina, Spain, next March.

After more than 140 World Cup starts, six FIS World Championships and four Olympics – with the fifth totally focused on – a long career as an athlete will come to an end.

“I'm not afraid of calling it a day,” said the old hand of Austrian and international snowboarding during his on-snow training camp staged at the Mölltaler glacier.

Quite the contrary, the rider who resides in Andorra for more than ten years now, adds: “I'm feeling strong and due to my injure-free pre-season even fitter than the past two years. I'm having fun with racing. But after this season, it's time to ring down the curtain on my career! Twenty years are enough.”

However, Grabner is looking forward to his final head to head duels with his international and national rivals on the circuit and wants to mix it at the top once more.

“I want to strike once again in my last season. I'm fit, I'm enjoying what I do. Everything is possible, in the World Cup and at the Olympics. Bringing home another Olympic medal would be the icing on the cake”, explained the 2006 Winter Olympic parallel giant slalom Bronze medallist.
If the son of a hill farmer manages to compete in Sochi next February, he would be the only snowboarder besides Jasey Jay Anderson (CAN) – if the reigning PGS Olympic Champion also makes the cut – having participated in all Olympic Winter Games ever since snowboarding got introduced to this major event at Nagano, Japan, in 1998.

“I would love to fulfil my dream. And five participations would also perfectly match the five Olympic rings.”

For more information on Sigi Grabner check his homepage.

– See more at: http://www.fissnowboard.com/uk/news/snowboard-veteran-sigi-grabner-ready-for-one-last-season,766.html#sthash.T7Q4JoV5.dpuf

From FIS Website

 

Author: jax