Thomas Morgenstern's Farewell party
Thomas Morgenstern's farewell party
When the news of the decision of Thomas Morgenstern regarding his retirement came out, I think that all of us, were at least a bit saddened because of that.
In the end we have seen this guy, grow, win, suffer, and becoming a man, in the last 12 years of this young Austrian's career.
But just as Thomas said, fear is something that you cannot hide, it is right there, and unfortunately in a sport such as ski jumping, your head must be clean by any sort of thoughts, otherwise you are out. There are no half measures, because the risk is big.
Morgenstern throughout his sporting career, has had his share of danger, the first big crash, it happened in Kuusamo in 2004, then the two (two accidents in the frame of a month) last season. Titisee - Neustadt, and the one in Bad Mitterndorf.
Morgi, as usual has fought back, and stood up again, winning (the last race in career for the Carinthian) the last silver medal in Sochi in the team competition.
No one would have thought that that would have been the last time, and perhaps not even Morgenstern had thought so.
Not surprisingly he’d trained for all the summer, mostly on his own. But it was not enough to train and try to get back to the races, now something inside him was broken, and it was something that allowed Morgenstern to compete at a high level for 12 years, winning Olympic medals, World cups, Ski Flying titles, and the Four Hills. Altogether a career of hard work which paid off, winning everything that was possible to win.
However it is not so easy to stay away from the hills for too long, so this is how we have found Morgenstern again, in a very different guise, (shooting video with the sponsor Audi A Quattro), being the nice taxi driver of the old friend and enemy Gregor Schlierenzauer, and for the German Severin Freund.
His career, however, was yet to be officially ended, at least with a farewell party, just like the one that he gave last Tuesday, where the Austrian team of ski jumping, and other faces of the sport have taken part, to thank and honor the incredible sporting career of this great athlete, who has given so much to the sport, and that will be hard to replace. Because being a champion is also this: being able to enter the hearts of the people, regardless, for whom each of us can cheer, because being a champion, the real ones, are those that go beyond the trophies won, are the ones that will leave us with something inside each and every one of us, forever.
So vielen Dank Morgi und viel Glück!
by Consuelo Conte
(picture source: (c) Mirja Geh Red Bull Content Pool)
