Katharina Althaus: "I didn't lose, I won silver!"

She is beautiful, strong-minded and she can fly. On skis, that is. She's only 22, but Katharina Althaus has already been twice to the Winter Olympic Games. From Pyeongchang she brought a precious souvenir - silver medal won in the individual competition. Meet the "sunshine" of the German Ski Team! 

 

Poinformowani.pl: How does it feel to be a silver Olympic medalist?

Katharina Althaus: It feels great! I couldn't believe it for the first few days. It was so great!

P: Did you feel any regrets after the competition, since the weather conditions were pretty bad and had a big influence on each jumpers performance? Was there a bit of regret that you could have jumped better, you could have won?

KA: Yes, for a moment I thought that I could win. But Maren was jumping very well during the whole season, so I was happy that I could show one of my best jumps in that competition. I didn't lose, I won silver!

P: How did your life change after that silver medal?

KA: Many people recognize me now, so it feels great to be well-known. They now know that girls are jumping too. I hope women ski jumping will get more and more  popular with time.

 

P: A lot of people see you as the next great jumper after Carina Vogt. Do you still keep in touch? Is she someone who inspired you in the past?

KA: Yes, it was great to watch her win every great competition. And when she won a gold Olympic medal in Sochi it was so wonderful. Every time she inspired me during training and it also helped me during the competition. It's nice that people say something like this.

P: Your trainer called you “the sunshine of the entire team” in one of the interviews. Any comments on that?

KA: Yeah, probably. I want to be happy all the time and smile a lot because I don't like to feel sad. Be it ski jumping or anything else. I just want to be happy!

P: Does your attitude help you deal with all the stress you're under during ski jump competitions?

KA: Yes, I'm a very positive person, so I think it helps me a lot.

P: If you were to pick your best friend among ski jumpers, who would that be?

KA: There are quite a few girls. Carina Vogt, Gianina Ernst and Svenja Würth.

P: What does Katharina Althaus do aside from being a ski jumper?

KA: I want to study and I'd like to do something related to people, maybe working with little children. But I don't know what the future will bring. For now I just hope to be able to jump for a few more years, and later we will see what I will do.

P: You've already been to Olympics twice. You're still only 22 so we will probably see you for the third time. Do you see yourself on the podium again?

KA: There's still a lot of time before the next Olympics. I hope I will jump as good as now and I can jump on the podium again. But as I said, we still have a lot of time.

P: Next time you'll get another medal opportunity – mixed team competition. Would you like to be on that team?

KA: Yes I do. We fought a lot for this competition and I hope I'll be able to jump on the mixed team as well.

P: Who would you pick as your teammates?

KA: Oh I don't know! It's not an easy question to answer. We will see.