the moment I was lost in confusion it’s
the moment you realize there’s no way
out it’s a moment of being lost in your
own body in a moment of Tears let’s call
it way too far out of the comfort zone
the quality and the richness you can
find in a moment like that it’s the
feeling of being fearless fear a
complexity itself it’s gone there’s no
more power to fight against something
it’s this feeling of accepting life and
then this feeling of accepting life in
all of its beauty and bigger meaning the
true strength inside of me brings me
back to focus that’s why for me the
quality of confusion is presence I was
standing there at the Sochi Olympics as
well as the top riders of Austria and
the first competition out of two and I
was hiding my tears with this huge black
mirrored snow world Gaara trying to
figure out myself and how I should
explain this failure to revolve in to
I was as ready as it gets and it was the
most easiest slope I’ve ever seen and
snowboard on and I failed
I slipped away and got disqualified
twice I don’t even know my result I
never looked it up I finished
30-something and I was ready you know
and I was so about winning Olympic Hall
Golf because the second place never made
it to my heart and me as an athlete I
know my history and it starts when a
little kid falls in love of snowboarding
the very first time starting a journey
with no glory
guaranteed time to achieve something no
one in Austin and snowboarding history
has ever achieved before that was the
mission I was on that was the mission my
heart was on and same time my mind
trying to figure out how I should
explain that but before I tell you more
about Sochi let’s fill up your gap the
gap after 1,000 invisible steps because
standing there at the start gate it’s
the last step visible I grew up in the
very east part of Austria there are no
mountains no skiing knows no warning
and this leads to the most boring
question asked over and over and over
again how is it even possible to become
this question is so boring to me because
it never made it to my heart I never
spent a single thought about it it was
never on my radar because I’m a
snowboarder and I’m from Portland and I
never questioned it so I was all about
movement when I was a little bit little
kid and nature was my playground and I
was visualizing and daydreaming and I
was climbing the highest peaks with my
brothers and my whole life was about
adventures and then the very going to
this winter holiday and I was falling in
love of snowboarding and it happened
that in the same week
Hammond my upon two gold medals so I got
all inspired and only imagining becoming
an Olympian was like playing the magic
and my heart was intuitive hiding and
protecting this magic because I didn’t
but all of those dreams and all of my
mindset was shaking when I was 13 it was
questioned life and the first time in my
life something felt impossible to
overcome it felt impossible to strap on
a snowboard ever again and 11th November
2000 I was ready to hit the slopes with
my paddle and my best friends and
teammates and we were all same crazy
liberals lowland kids trying to achieve
something and winter sport and we were
pushing each other and we were standing
up there crazy enough to set the alarm
at 3:00 a.m. on a Saturday to leave it
for to catch the first lift and I was
already training about 20 hours a week
when I was 11 and the conditions they
seemed to be perfect that day it was
sunny fresh powder and our friends they
were slightly delayed my brother and I
we were standing in line to catch the
funicular railway up the mountain and we
keep there for a while and I don’t know
why and I got asked by are we not taking
the canola up instead and I was a little
bit confused because the fastest and
usual way up there as the funicular
railway and it’s quite a hike back to
the gondola maybe I was just
and not in the mood of discussing so I
just followed taking this gondola
instead saved both of our lives 155
people died that day
in component in one of Austin’s biggest
disasters all of my friends our whole
team and it’s this fine line between
life and death and I lost so much at
that moment obviously I lost my friends
but same time I also lost my faith and
the trust and about two months later I
was back on a snowboard and honestly I
felt safer to have this huge girdle to
hide my tears
it was snowboarding that connected us
and it was the sport that made my body
feel alive again and it took me years to
regain my confidence and to come back
from that but I just didn’t want to give
up the dream we shared so I threw myself
back into training and I made my way up
into the national team I achieved
multiple World Cup podiums two silver
medals at the World Championships
but those medals they were achieved in
setbacks
I suffered several career threatening
injuries to ACLs
I cook my left anchor I turned all the
ligaments in my right I dislocated my
shoulder I had a lot of concussions
which finally moved me out of the
Vancouver Winter Olympics and missing
that I was so close to quit snowboarding
at that point and I realized there are
only two options left I can change
myself totally or I have to stop I don’t
believe in coincidences I believe life
is about the lights that we share and
it’s about the struggles and the fears
which are leading us back to our inner
light I am all about huge goals a goal
is only big enough if it scares me and
excites me at the same time and I was
using trial and error to find ways for
myself bringing me back into a
resourceful state of mind
Yoga mental coaching and for sure hard
work and this brings me back to this
interview at the Sochi Olympics at my
first competition and I was standing
there and the only sentence which came
to my mind was I I’m sorry but I forgot
my skating shoes and it looked like I
failed but you never know because life
is the teacher and I trust the teacher
because I’m all about intuition I
switched my snowboarding plans at the
last World Cup before the Olympics
that’s that’s stupid that’s a no-go
and I was riding this board only twice
once to qualify for the Olympics and the
second time brings me to Sochi three
days after I lost I was standing in the
big final the final between gold and
silver I was behind with seventy seventy
two hundredths of a second and that’s a
lot but at one point of everything I
worked towards wasn’t balanced and I had
standing on a cliff with my snowboard or
dropping in into Olympic finally that’s
what I call flying it takes to steep in
a trust of letting go of letting go of
everything and it’s this combination of
confidence of skills and touval it’s a
decision to win or lose and it’s all on
you
and performing simple in all of this
complexity that’s known as the flow
[Applause]
that’s how I won the Olympic gold melt
the first Olympic gold medal for
snowboarding in Austria and the first
ever gold medal for my home state in any
sport and sometimes I still cannot
realize it because it was quite a
journey and you now can see all those
little steps but you need before to
achieve a goal like that and every huge
goal achieved starts with a vision and
vividly and leftist commitment and well
that no matter what’s going to happen
that you go for that and it’s all
achieved in being fearless make sure
that fear is your best friend because it
will guide you to your potential and
sometimes you cry and sometimes you fly but most importantly you need to shine
the moment you realize there’s no way
out it’s a moment of being lost in your
own body in a moment of Tears let’s call
it way too far out of the comfort zone
the quality and the richness you can
find in a moment like that it’s the
feeling of being fearless fear a
complexity itself it’s gone there’s no
more power to fight against something
it’s this feeling of accepting life and
then this feeling of accepting life in
all of its beauty and bigger meaning the
true strength inside of me brings me
back to focus that’s why for me the
quality of confusion is presence I was
standing there at the Sochi Olympics as
well as the top riders of Austria and
the first competition out of two and I
was hiding my tears with this huge black
mirrored snow world Gaara trying to
figure out myself and how I should
explain this failure to revolve in to
I was as ready as it gets and it was the
most easiest slope I’ve ever seen and
snowboard on and I failed
I slipped away and got disqualified
twice I don’t even know my result I
never looked it up I finished
30-something and I was ready you know
and I was so about winning Olympic Hall
Golf because the second place never made
it to my heart and me as an athlete I
know my history and it starts when a
little kid falls in love of snowboarding
the very first time starting a journey
with no glory
guaranteed time to achieve something no
one in Austin and snowboarding history
has ever achieved before that was the
mission I was on that was the mission my
heart was on and same time my mind
trying to figure out how I should
explain that but before I tell you more
about Sochi let’s fill up your gap the
gap after 1,000 invisible steps because
standing there at the start gate it’s
the last step visible I grew up in the
very east part of Austria there are no
mountains no skiing knows no warning
and this leads to the most boring
question asked over and over and over
again how is it even possible to become
this question is so boring to me because
it never made it to my heart I never
spent a single thought about it it was
never on my radar because I’m a
snowboarder and I’m from Portland and I
never questioned it so I was all about
movement when I was a little bit little
kid and nature was my playground and I
was visualizing and daydreaming and I
was climbing the highest peaks with my
brothers and my whole life was about
adventures and then the very going to
this winter holiday and I was falling in
love of snowboarding and it happened
that in the same week
Hammond my upon two gold medals so I got
all inspired and only imagining becoming
an Olympian was like playing the magic
and my heart was intuitive hiding and
protecting this magic because I didn’t
but all of those dreams and all of my
mindset was shaking when I was 13 it was
questioned life and the first time in my
life something felt impossible to
overcome it felt impossible to strap on
a snowboard ever again and 11th November
2000 I was ready to hit the slopes with
my paddle and my best friends and
teammates and we were all same crazy
liberals lowland kids trying to achieve
something and winter sport and we were
pushing each other and we were standing
up there crazy enough to set the alarm
at 3:00 a.m. on a Saturday to leave it
for to catch the first lift and I was
already training about 20 hours a week
when I was 11 and the conditions they
seemed to be perfect that day it was
sunny fresh powder and our friends they
were slightly delayed my brother and I
we were standing in line to catch the
funicular railway up the mountain and we
keep there for a while and I don’t know
why and I got asked by are we not taking
the canola up instead and I was a little
bit confused because the fastest and
usual way up there as the funicular
railway and it’s quite a hike back to
the gondola maybe I was just
and not in the mood of discussing so I
just followed taking this gondola
instead saved both of our lives 155
people died that day
in component in one of Austin’s biggest
disasters all of my friends our whole
team and it’s this fine line between
life and death and I lost so much at
that moment obviously I lost my friends
but same time I also lost my faith and
the trust and about two months later I
was back on a snowboard and honestly I
felt safer to have this huge girdle to
hide my tears
it was snowboarding that connected us
and it was the sport that made my body
feel alive again and it took me years to
regain my confidence and to come back
from that but I just didn’t want to give
up the dream we shared so I threw myself
back into training and I made my way up
into the national team I achieved
multiple World Cup podiums two silver
medals at the World Championships
but those medals they were achieved in
setbacks
I suffered several career threatening
injuries to ACLs
I cook my left anchor I turned all the
ligaments in my right I dislocated my
shoulder I had a lot of concussions
which finally moved me out of the
Vancouver Winter Olympics and missing
that I was so close to quit snowboarding
at that point and I realized there are
only two options left I can change
myself totally or I have to stop I don’t
believe in coincidences I believe life
is about the lights that we share and
it’s about the struggles and the fears
which are leading us back to our inner
light I am all about huge goals a goal
is only big enough if it scares me and
excites me at the same time and I was
using trial and error to find ways for
myself bringing me back into a
resourceful state of mind
Yoga mental coaching and for sure hard
work and this brings me back to this
interview at the Sochi Olympics at my
first competition and I was standing
there and the only sentence which came
to my mind was I I’m sorry but I forgot
my skating shoes and it looked like I
failed but you never know because life
is the teacher and I trust the teacher
because I’m all about intuition I
switched my snowboarding plans at the
last World Cup before the Olympics
that’s that’s stupid that’s a no-go
and I was riding this board only twice
once to qualify for the Olympics and the
second time brings me to Sochi three
days after I lost I was standing in the
big final the final between gold and
silver I was behind with seventy seventy
two hundredths of a second and that’s a
lot but at one point of everything I
worked towards wasn’t balanced and I had
standing on a cliff with my snowboard or
dropping in into Olympic finally that’s
what I call flying it takes to steep in
a trust of letting go of letting go of
everything and it’s this combination of
confidence of skills and touval it’s a
decision to win or lose and it’s all on
you
and performing simple in all of this
complexity that’s known as the flow
[Applause]
that’s how I won the Olympic gold melt
the first Olympic gold medal for
snowboarding in Austria and the first
ever gold medal for my home state in any
sport and sometimes I still cannot
realize it because it was quite a
journey and you now can see all those
little steps but you need before to
achieve a goal like that and every huge
goal achieved starts with a vision and
vividly and leftist commitment and well
that no matter what’s going to happen
that you go for that and it’s all
achieved in being fearless make sure
that fear is your best friend because it
will guide you to your potential and
sometimes you cry and sometimes you fly but most importantly you need to shine
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