Speculation as to whether the story of her torment has stalled a long career plays no part for her in any case. “I am happy when I hear nothing about it,” the 29-year-old said. “After all these years at some point it will be enough and you will lose yourself at some point. I am just happy when I can just look at skiing and not have to think much.”

“Skiing with fun and not thinking too much about what you’re doing, just having fun and enjoying it” is her motto. “At some point you’re going to have to break it down a little bit. I’ve noticed over the years that things just can’t go on like this, I have to think about something. Now I enjoy the whole thing again, maybe I’ve got to narrow everything down now.” Doesn’t look like a brain,” Puchner said. The looser and more relaxed approach probably “helped him a lot”.

fractures with long consequences

As a reminder: the Pongau women’s star rose on March 16, 2016, when the then-23-year-old won a sensational downhill World Cup final in St. Moritz. Puchner was supposed to have a medal secret tip in the title fight there a year later, but suffered a fracture in the lower leg while training for the World Cup downhill. And the break didn’t go the way everyone expected.

The first operation took place on February 8, 2017, shortly after the fall at St. Moritz. After that and during the first rehab at Ingels, a 13-degree rotation of the leg was found, which is why the athlete was operated again five weeks later in Innsbruck. Another operation was performed in November 2017 as the bone did not grow together as expected. Finally, in spring 2019, the 34 cm long nail had to be removed.

Shortly before that, in March 2019, Puchner had already repeated his sensational victory from 2016: he had also won the World Cup final downhill in Soldeu. It was a matter of great satisfaction as she kept fighting with her leg, she said at the time. And it showed that the SV runner has a strong will.

surprised by his own performance

In Lake Louise she was already on the podium as the third of the downhill on Friday – Sunday’s winner was Sofia Gogia (ITA). So finally Puchner started off season one in a good and carefree manner. “It was a bit of a surprise. I am incredibly proud right now,” she said after her first Super-G podium. In the upcoming races in Europe, Puchner could have done even more, especially since her SV Women’s Racing Director Christian Miter affirms “a tremendous basic speed”.

“Of course it must go on now,” said Styrian. “We have to live with it.” Canada may not be completely satisfied with the yield, said Miter, who however emphasized the successful return of Nicole Schmidhofer (15th and fourth best SV athlete in Super-G). The team has come to a standstill in the last few years after good placements. “It looked great. Half a second (in Gogia, note) is still a lot, but we’ll see if we can get there.”