This Down to Earth Champion is Living a Fairytale

At 29 years old, Johannes Strolz is living a fairy tale. A year ago, he was dismissed from the Austrian team due to a lack of performance. However, Strolz was given a glimmer of hope; the national team would grant him access to the December qualifier. If Strolz skied well in the time trial, he would start the first two SL World Cups of the 2021/22 season. Training as an independent during the prep period, he goes on to qualify. Strolz does not finish those first two World Cups, but he earns two more starts based on a promising first run in the second race in Madona. Lightning strikes, and he wins the season’s third SL race in Adelboden. That qualifies him for a spot in the Beijing Olympics. There he earns three medals. Although this story is unusual and exciting, it does not begin to tell the real story.

The origin story begins

For his entire life, Strolz has called Warth, Austria home. At the top of the Arlberg Pass, few places on earth can match its beauty. In the winter, the small village of fewer than 200 people is at the end of the road. Before the entire pass is free of snow, it takes almost two hours to travel to their neighbors in Lech, but when the snow melts and the road opens, it is only minutes away.

Originally from Lech, his mother, Birgit, has tourist apartments she manages in Warth. His father, Hubert, an Olympic champion, tends to his cows year-round and guides and teaches skiing in the winter. Strolz’s younger sister, Anna-Maria, enjoys working at the Warth branch of the Raiffeisen Bank during the winter and Lech in the summer. However, this winter, a colleague who worked in Lech broke her ankle. His sister commuted from Warth to Lech on skis to cover her colleague. It was either using the lift system to ski to Lech, 40 minutes, or a two-hour winter drive.

Strolz says, “Through ski racing, I’ve seen many amazing places globally, and I have never seen a place and said I want to live here someday.”

His first memory of skiing is running around the house with plastic skis.  Then, like every other kid in Warth, he remembers learning to ski in the local ski school.

Growing up a short walk to the lift and able to ski to his front door at the end of the day, Strolz spent much of his youth skiing.

Strolz says, “It was a long time before I had any structure in my skiing. It was all about fun and spending time with friends and just doing what we wanted to.”

Strolz was a member of Ski Club Warth as a kid and liked running gates but remembers being asked by his coach if he wanted to become an Olympic champion like his father.

Strolz recalls the conversation: “No, I don’t think so. I think I will be a ski instructor one day. The coach just laughed and said, ‘But why? You can do both. You can be a world-class ski racer first and instruct afterward,’ So, the thought of being a ski racer took some time for me to embrace.”

Like many talented Austrian ski racers in Vorarlberg, Strolz had the opportunity to go to a boarding school in Schruns at age ten. He remembers having a bad feeling the day the family was to register him. He knew it was too early for him. So, he stayed in Warth two more years before attending the Schruns school.

When he turned 15 and started FIS racing, he attended the Schigymnasium in Stams near Innsbruck in the Tirol. That is when he first felt like a full-time ski racer.

Down to earth champion

Strolz is the son of an Olympic double medalist, Hubert Strolz, and now he has three medals earned in Beijing to add to the family legacy. He is justifiably proud of this season’s performance. However, he realizes he is still the same person released from the national team a year ago. He is the same person who had experienced only marginal World Cup success for four years. So, it is almost predictable that when asked what his fondest skiing memories are, Strolz does not mention the Olympics.

Instead, he speaks of relationships and the support of teammates, commenting,” My most enjoyable memory is the many years spent with my many teammates. There are so many fun stories and experiences I shared with good people. I have spent time with my friends doing something we love. One of the best moments I remember from competing was my first European Cup victory. I will never forget it. I crossed the finish line first, and there was one racer still at the start that could beat me. When he crossed the finish, he was behind me. Immediately, all my teammates were in the finish area and were so happy. I will never forget that. This year, it was the same in Adelboden when I won my first World Cup. Friends and teammates were so excited, a much bigger event but a similar feeling.”

Strolz values relationships the most, particularly with his father, an Olympic champion..

Strolz reflects, “My father was a world-class ski racer. I love listening to the stories when he is with his ski racing friends. When they talk about the good old days, it is never about their most fantastic results or anybody’s results. Instead, it is always about the funny stuff they did together and their shared experiences. I learned from watching them that in the end what matters most and will stay with you are your relationships. I hope it will be the same for me.”

Painful Challenge

The 2020/21 season was disappointing yet pivotal for Strolz. It was the fourth season of modest World Cup scoring. He had failed to finish in the top 30 on the WCSL. He had needed to complete the season ranked top 25 or better to remain on the team.

Strolz explains that he spent the winter worrying about staying in the World Cup and staying on the team. Admitting that every time a race went by without making points, he went deeper into self-doubt and concern.

Strolz explains, “I skied well in Zagreb, but I ended up 31st after the first run. It was another slap in my face. My mind raced, driving home, believing that was it. That was my last chance because my teammate Dominik Raschner had done well in the Europa Cup races. I knew they would give him the next World Cup start in Adelboden. I was wrong, and I got the start in Adelboden. In Adelboden, I qualified for the second run with luck when AJ Ginnis thought he straddled and stopped. After reviewing the video, it was clear he hadn’t straddled. If he had continued, Ginnis would have knocked me out of the second run. But I still only had nine points, and the season was now 40% complete.”

Opportunity for change

Released by the Federation at the season’s end, Strolz learned that if he continued, he would have a chance to time trial for a World Cup spot before the first Slalom race in December.

It had been an exhausting season. Strolz had tried to focus on being free from expectations and letting it happen. However, he had not been able to avoid the nagging thought of having to prove himself. He had spent his entire season worrying about his career running out of time.

After the season, Strolz waited for a bit, not wanting to be too emotional when deciding to continue independently or not. Many people believed in him and made it clear they would support him no matter what he decided.

Strolz explains, “I decided that it would be horrible for me if I woke up someday thinking I should have continued. I told myself, give it one more try, one last push. So, I could say to myself, you tried everything. If it works out, it’s good, and if not, it’s fine as well. There is always something else waiting for me.”

Freedom found leads to success

For the first time, Strolz would design his fitness and ski program. He had only one goal, to be the best he could the day of the World Cup time trial in December. Because he had experienced good results, Strolz used the Federation’s fitness program. He organizes ski training with other teams. An interesting thing began to happen. For the first time in his life, he was quiet with his thoughts. He no longer worried about winning training runs. He wasn’t looking left and right to see what others were doing.

Strolz explains his new approach, “I took one step at a time. I never felt I had to prove anything. I focused on my needs. That was the big game-changer for me. Every moment, I thought about what was best for me. I never had the thought to be the fastest in training or that I needed to prove that I belonged on the team.”

The thought he will carry forward into this season is to trust himself, trust his skiing skills and ability to ski fast, and trust in his ability to make decisions.

Strolz says, “The most important thing for an athlete, especially a young athlete, is to follow an individual path, both athletically and as a person. That is my most important goal. I am again on the national team and have many people around to support me and give me good advice. Still, the most important thing in the future will be listening to myself, believing in my choices, and taking responsibility.”

Stolz confesses that he will give up one responsibility this season: he will no longer tune his skis and looks forward to being supported by factory service from HEAD.

Strolz wants to send a final message to other athletes. “I think one of the most important things to consider is that athletes are disappointed when they have a bad day, and that’s fine, but they should be disappointed in the result and not in themselves. That is something they need to learn and should learn. It is not easy, and you have to be able to suffer in sports. But at the end of the day, if you do what you love, it doesn’t matter if you end up as an Olympic champion or an athlete whose best effort scored 93 points. When you do what you like most, your time doing it is valuable.”

Strolz showed again who he is when asked about the Olympics in Beijing. Strolz responds,” It was a good experience for me. I felt good there from the first day to the last. The Chinese people helping at the competition venues, training areas, and the Olympics village were great. I had heard a lot of negative expectations before arriving, but I enjoyed it.”

Like his champion father speaking with his friends, there was no mention of the three medals he brought back, just his experience.