How skiing helped me improve my personal and professional development

2. How I got to skiing
As soon as I started walking, my parents put me on
my first skies and I have loved it ever since. Soon I
began to train hard and started my first slalom and
giant slalom competitions. After a number of
successful races, I joint the first ski-club at the age of
9 and started to participate in team competitions. Ski
racing has not only been very joyful for me through
these years, it has become a real passion and has
helped me to develop and become the person who I
am today.
Even though I have stopped ski racing a couple of
years ago, I still try to carry out my passion as often as
I can. Most recently, I have started to go on skitours,
which is an energetic activity in which most of your
time is spent going uphill without any mechanical
lifts.
Going on ski tours is the perfect getaway from my
busy daily life and helps me to get my mind off after a
stressful day.

5. Getting to a certain level in skiing requires
hard work and discipline. In order to get in
physical shape, I had been practicing up to
5 times a week during ski season. This
included getting up at 5 o’clock in the
morning on weekends to be the first one
on the slope. During the week, I would get
on the slope right after school, having to
deal with home work and studies at night.
Working out and a special diet have also
been part of the deal. This training may
seem crucial at first glance, however, I
would not want to change a thing since the
reward – winning a trophy, being on the
slope – has more than offset the negative
aspect.
Skiing has taught me that hard work pays
off and there is no better feeling than
accomplishing something and getting
rewarded for it.

6. Skiing always comes with a certain amount of risk. If you go down the hill,
especially in a downhill race or Super G, there is always a chance of falling
and getting hurt. In contrast to the common believe that skiers are
reckless with their health and put themselves into dangerous situations,
every risk is clearly calculated before the race starts. You do so, by
analyzing the racing track before the start, examining the condition of the
snow (is it soft or icy), reviewing how the track is set, implying the risk of
changing weather conditions. Based on this analysis, you can choose the
right ski and determine how you will tackle the race. Therefore, the risk of
getting hurt can be minimized.
Risk assessment is also an important factor in a company. Before investing
in a company f.e., you have to determine all quantitative and qualitative
value of risk factors related to a concrete situation and calculate all
components of risk before making a decision. So it is basically the same
procedure as in skiing.

7. Strategic thinking is needed before, during
and after the ski race. You have to have a
plan when going down the hill and
approaching the gates that is tailor made for
each racing condition.
• cdcdc A strategy is needed during the race, as
unexpected factors always show up when
practicing this sport. The weather could
become worse, fog could block your view.
Strategic thinking has to be implemented
fast and one might have to be ready to
come up with a plan B.
If you make a mistake during the race and
loose, you have to analyze it afterwards and
think of a strategy to prevent it from
happening again.
Ski racing has definitely sharpened my
strategic thinking and has taught me to deal
quickly and efficiently with unexpected
situations.

8. Team work is not only important
during a team competition, but also
during training. In skiing, you barely
practice by yourself but rather with a
number of people. My team
members have always been
important to me since they
encourage you, give you advice and
help you improve.
A team competition can be compared
to a team within a company. For a
team competition, you can not be a
individualist, but rather trust and
belief in your team, work together
and practice to become a better
team. In a team your only as good as
your weakest link.

9. Ski racing requires mental strength as
much as it does physical fitness. In fact,
good ski racers are almost always equal in
physical, technical and tactical abilities, it
is therefore the mastery of one’s mind
that tips the balance in favor of the
winner. Throughout a racing season, I
have often experienced certain mental
challenges such as pre-match anxiety and
various other emotional ups and downs,
such as self-doubt and discomfort
periods, which have had a significant
effect on my performance.
I have learned that you have to be mental
strong, confident and believe in yourself
in order to succeed. Skiing has helped me
understand that you can conquer almost
everything when you belief in yourself

10. When ski racing, you have to come up
with a strategy that is particularly
tailored to the given conditions. Different
factors, such as the condition of the
snow, the temperature, the weather have
to be taken into account.
This is similar in business: in order to
approach a problem, different factors
have to be take into consideration and
solved, based on the unique
circumstances.

11. Ski racing can put you into a very
stressful situation. When ski racing,
a lot of pressure is put on you by
yourself, your trainer and maybe
even by your family. It needed a lot
of experience and many lost races,
before I have learned not to let my
feelings overwhelm me and rather
remain clear headed, no matter how
stressful the situation may be.
I have noticed that nowadays, I can
benefit of my ski racing experience,
as it helps me to deal with stressful
situations and lets me stay calm
most of the times.

12. During a ski race, it can
often happen that you make
a mistake. Mistakes happen,
its important to learn from
them and continuously
improve.
A good leader in a company
is doing the same: he/she
will get to the root cause of
the error and come up with
an idea on how to improve
and how to prevent it from
happening again.

13. Skiing has taught me important leadership
skills, it helped me to become goal oriented,
think strategically, analyze my actions,
continuously improve and also to be
ambitious and perseverant.

14. Thank you
for your
attention!