Yesterday, 2003 World Champion Siegfried Grabner (AUT) celebrated his comeback on snow after an injury forced him to endurance training in the gym last December. In Telluride, USA, the 35-years-old Austrian hurt his ankle after one of his bindings broke during a parallel giant slalom World Cup race.
It was a shock for the 2009 Overall World Cup title winner, who has planned to take it slowly with his on-snow training sessions.
"The most important thing for me is that everything is fully healed before I really go for it. I listen to the doctors and try to follow their advices" Grabner, who can look back on a 16 years lasting career as a pro so far, said.
Nine days ago, the plaster had been taken off. Ever since, the race board veteran, who is one out of two snowboarders (the other one is Mathieu Bozzetto, FRA) being nominated for all Winter Games since snowboarding has been an Olympic sport, is optimistic to do well on February 27th.
"I guess I never was so psyched about a major event" he told in a press release sent out this week. "It's totally different this time", the so far sole Austrian male snowboarder having earned an Olympic medal added. "This time, I don't have to race but I'm allowed to do so. I'm looking forward to the competition and I know that I can place on top of the podium."
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