Interview with Slovenia's starlet Peter Prevc

Interview with Slovenia's starlet Peter Prevc

Photo credits Kathrin Müller © Skijumpingitaly

Here we are again, as you all know we cannot let you down and we are feeling festive so we wanna bring you as much interviews as we can as a proper Christmas gift!During the year we’ve had the pleasure to interview Bjorn Einar Romoren, Thomas Morgenstern, Tom Hilde, Robert Johansson, Ilia Rosliakov, Jernej Damjan, Kalle Keituri, Davide Bresadola, Diego Dellasega, Anja Tepes, Julia Kykkänen, and many more, to not forget, the pleasure we’ve had to interview Alexander Stoeckl, Fred Zoz, and the race director Walter Hofer.

So as you can see we really try hard to give you something good, and since we love to do our job today we are here with one of the starlets of the Slovenian team: He made his debut in the World Cup in December 2009 finishing at the 22nd place. He won a bronze medal at the FIS Ski Nordic World Championships 2011 in Oslo in the team large hill event. He got his first podium in Planica in 2011 (3rd) and his first World Cup victory in February next year in Oberstdorf with the team: Peter Prevc.

Skijumpingitaly: Hello Peter, thank you for being here today. Excited about this season so far? Peter Prevc: Hey to everyone and yes of course I’m excited about this season. It started better than I expected. SJI: What’s your expectations about this current season? PP: In this season I want to reach my February performance and improve it during the competitions. SJI: You are only 20 but since you made your debut in the World Cup back in 2009 your results have been really positive. Did you ever expected to be so competitive since day one? PP: Of course I expected. Every sportsman trains and gives everything to be competitive in a world class. SJI: As we can still remember, you hurt your shoulder after an incredible jump in Oberstdorf in February this year, bringing your team to win this team event and yourself into the hospital to get your shoulder fixed. After this your season was over. Then we saw you again in Kranj this July and you jumped on the third and the next day even on the first place! That is an amazing comeback! Tell us more about the time that you’ve been away from the screen. How was the time of the injury and how did your training look like in the summer before you came back?

PP: The good comeback was just the result of early start into the new season. Because I ended the season one month earlier, I started the new season one month sooner, at the start of April. The injury took my strength, so I had to get it back. Thanks to the good physiotherapists, who had me under supervision for up to 6 hours per day, I found enough motivation to train harder as I ever had. My trainings were different from day to day, to eliminate monotony.

SJI: Your summer continued pretty well with the next team-victory in the SGP in Wisła and the fifth place in the COC in Lillehammer. It’s like your shoulder injury has never been there. How do you evaluate your start of the winter season?

PP: The start of competitions in summer was really good. But later I lost some feeling about the inrun position and my performance was not so good anymore. Then we put more attention to details, and the feelings start to come back. And when we had our first training camp on snow, my performance increased on a pretty good level. I can say that the start of winter season was very good, but I still have some reserve in details. SJI: Did you expect a team-victory in Kuusamo? PP: After the first round I believed, that if everyone makes a very good jump, we can win. But unfortunately it didn’t happen. One mistake put us to third place and all of us were very satisfied, because we know that we can be on the podium with mistakes. SJI: Last season you finished at your highest rank since your debut, 15thplace in the overall WC table. That you know how to win, is clear since your four victories in the COC. What are your goals for the upcoming season in the WC? PP: I ˝know how˝ to win in COC, but in world cup I didn’t find the recipe for winning. JGoals for that season? My goal is to be better and better, during the season, and always be focused on my performance. With that I can make good results. SJI: Usually the pre-Olympic year is always a bit busier than the usual seasons, in fact the World Championships are around the corner and will take place in Val di Fiemme in two months time more or less, what kind of expectations do you have for these championship? PP: I don’t have any special expectations for the world championship. The season is long, and I can’t focus just on 4 competitions. SJI: Would you like to evaluate your team-mates results in this young season? What kind of chances does it have Slovenia to get one or more medals? Do you reckon you could actually go for the gold in the team event? PP: My team-mates are really well prepared. Jurij and Jaka both already ended in top 10, Jaka was very close to win, Robi made 2 results ending up in top20, and we all know, that his part of season is not here yet. We also can’t forget the other guys (Damjan, Pungertar, Judež, Naglič, Hrgota…), who also have a high level of performance. And there are also Šinkovec and Mežnar, who are in final phase of their recovery from knee injuries. We have a really strong team, and that can lead us to very good results in Val di Fiemme. SJI: Can you tell us how your ski jumping career has begun? Who inspired you to choose ski jumping as your sporting career? PP: I started to train in a ski-jump club when I was nine and a half. Before that I was building jumping hills behind the house. My father saw my enthusiasm of sport and drove me to the club, where it all started for real.

SJI: Ski-jumping enthusiasts are also interested in the person behind the results and the sportsman behind the sport. Would you like to tell us something about you personally? What do you like? Who’s your idol? What are your goals in life? Your hobbies? PP: It’s hard for me to tell about myself, but I think that I’m a peaceful person, with a strange sense of humor. I like to be in good company, to drive fast (on the racetrack), and to do sport. My idol is Nejc Zaplotnik, the deceased Slovenian extreme climber. He was always focused on his way, and that gave him power to great success. I have no goals for life. Okay a house, a family, and so on, but that’s quite a “must”J. I will see what life will bring to me.

Photo credits Kathrin Müller © Skijumpingitaly

We would like to thank Peter for finding the time for us, hopefully this will be the first interview of many more with us.If there are any ski jumpers female or male you would like to us to interview E:mail us and we will try our very best to deliver that interview to you guys.

Interview by Consuelo Conte [@KokkaMufc], and Peggy Kierstan [@pikayartist] 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!

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