Theo Gmur’s triple gold sets foundation for future

“This season there is more expectation. I’d love to win medals again but, for me now, the main goal has to be to improve my technical skill on skis. If medals come along, I will take them. But I want to be a better skier in four years’ time so I have to work with that cycle of four years.”

“It was pure emotion,” says Theo Gmur, as he remembers the moment last March when he instantly became one of the best-performing skiers of all time at a single Paralympics.

With an almighty roar into the camera, followed by an ecstatic, exhausted collapse on to the snow, the speedy Swiss realised that he’d clinched an amazing treble: alpine skiing gold medals in the giant slalom, super-G and – finally, unexpectedly – the downhill standing.

“The dream was one medal in the giant slalom and to see how I could do in the other races,” he admits now. “Markus Salcher from Austria was the big favourite, and I didn’t think I could beat him. I had no idea. So when I crossed the line, I was so surprised and so happy. But I didn’t really realise what I’d achieved.”

It wasn’t until he got a “crazy” reaction upon returning to his Swiss ski village of Nendaz that it all sunk in for the 22-year old.

“It was such a big homecoming, we had a big party in my village with all the people,” he says. “Only in that moment did I realise I’d done something great, and I could enjoy it. I didn’t realise the reaction to my performance back home until then.”

New season, new expectation

Now it’s time to concentrate on a new season, however, and Gmur is targeting the 2019 World Para Alpine Skiing Championships, which begins later this month in Sella Nevea, Italy and Kranjska Gora, Slovenia – alongside a longer-term goal.

“PyeongChang made me very happy – it being my first Games, the (Paralympic) Village, making friends – but I need to think about the next four years now,” he says.

“This season there is more expectation. I’d love to win medals again but, for me now, the main goal has to be to improve my technical skill on skis. If medals come along, I will take them. But I want to be a better skier in four years’ time so I have to work with that cycle of four years.”

Adrenaline rush

Unsurprisingly for a sports science university student who admits he is “obsessed with sport”, trying to find marginal gains that can help compensate for his disability – Gmur has cerebral palsy – is something that constantly drives him.

“I grew up on skis. I first skied at the age of two,” he says. “We are a big sports family and all love to ski. We went every weekend.

“It was normal for me to go with family and friends, and my disability certainly didn’t stop me skiing. In fact, the doctors and physios all said that it would help me with my condition. Skiing is very good therapy for my foot.

“With the way I ski, the main thing is to find ways to get my balance right. I now train specific things for the right side of my body, to try and level myself out. I enjoy the training and trying to make everything better, and it’s a real benefit that it’s good for me, too.”

Rivals beware: Gmur certainly isn’t going to get any slower. “I love the adrenaline of being fast on snow, it’s such a buzz,” he laughs. “Slalom is too slow for me.”