Pascal Egloff talks to us about his goals and the future

Pascal Egloff talks to us about his goals and the future

Consuelo Conte [@KokkaMufc] 10 September 2012

Pascal Egloff (Photo taken from his Facebook profile) Hello everybody here we are again with our interview space. This time we decided to bring to you one of the young faces from the Swiss team, he is only 20: Pascal Egloff. SJI: Hello Pascal thank you for joining SkiJumpingItaly for this interview. You just turned 20, did you have a good party for this life-landmark? PE: Hi everyone! To be honest, I just stayed at home and had a beer because I had to work in the morning. My birthdays don’t mean a lot to me, so I’m totally fine with that. But still, it’s weird to turn 20. SJI: So Pascal how did your ski jumping career begin? What made you decide you wanted to be a ski jumper? PE: It was kind of a family thing, my father and uncle were ski jumpers too and I was always at the hills with my father. So it was obvious what I’m going to do in the future. Then after watching the others, I did my first jumps when I was 5. SJI: Do you believe Simon Ammann has helped the youngsters to become ski jumpers? -The desire to emulate his success? -And also in this way helping this sport to develop in the right direction? PE: Yes for sure he motivated a lot of the kids to try it out. He made our sport more popular in our country and that’s always very important. Simon is very important for our team too. He helps us a lot in our development and tries very hard to give us good inputs. I think he would have some really good ideas for the sport in general if more people would listen to him. SJI: What do you like most about this sport? What's your feeling when you are in the air? Who was your idol in this sport? PE: I guess it’s the fact that you do something what not everybody is able to do. It’s a very special sport and it never gets boring. Also a very important thing is that you travel around the world, see a lot of things and have great moments with your teammates. I got to know great people and made very good friends. The feeling in the air is something amazing and special. The speed and pressure you feel is a very important part of it. It’s hard to describe and that’s ok because it makes it special. I don’t really have an idol, I just try to watch other jumpers and adapt things that they do very good. When I was little Guido Landert was some kind of an idol. SJI: What are your expectations for the upcoming season? PE: I want to show the people that I’m a good ski jumper. I didn’t get to show the best I can do in the past and I want to change that. I think it’s gonna be an interesting season, especially with the new competitions with the girls and the world champs. Hopefully it will generate new fans and even more interest of the people.

SJI: Switzerland -like Italy- doesn't have too many chances to succeed at the team events.... What do you think must be done to solve the gap with at least teams like Slovenia, Czech Republic etc.? PE: That’s true but even though there are reasons to hope that this changes in the next years. We have a few very good young jumpers and with Simon, Marco and Gregor already three very good athletes. Now it’s my and other jumpers like Pascal Kälin or Pascal Sommer’s job to close the gap and make sure that Switzerland has five or six good athletes instead of three. SJI What's your goal for the next winter season? PE: My goal is to get back in the team and the qualification for the world champs. For that I have to get my stuff together and show my best ski jumping. SJI: Tell us a bit more about you and what you like to do in your spare time. Any hobbies? PE: That’s difficult, I guess I’m a very emotional person who worries a lot and always thinks about everything. I’m a person who likes to be around people and doesn’t want to be alone for too long. Every ski jumper can tell you that you don’t have a lot spare time but when we do, we basically do the same things like everybody else. I like to hang out with friends, do interesting things and always looking out for the perfect girl. SJI: Do you go to school? If so what are you studying?

PE: I finished high school in June and want to study economics in the next years but I don’t know yet when I will start with that. At the moment I’m working part-time in addition to the training to earn money a little. You can follow us on our Facebook page as well as on Twitter! But since we know you also like taking a look at the various photos we started also an Instagram account, so don’t miss your chance to stay up to date with us! On another note, we would like to remind to all the fans that from this summer and winter season we will have contests where you have the chance to win flyers signed by your favorite ski jumper, we started with #GregorSchlierenzauer#TomHilde#JernejDamjan and plenty more, so always keep an eye, you might be the next winner!