It is said that snowboarding is the sport of young people, and in the field of professional snowboarding, youth is the biggest capital.
At the age of 20, McMurris defended his title at the World Extreme Games and was hailed as Sean White's successor...
The exception is Anna Gasser, known as the ceiling of the world's women's snowboarding difficulty, at the age of 20, who has only just started snowboarding.
At the age of 18, he went to the United States alone to learn snowboarding, won the world championship for the first time at the age of 26, and reached the top of the Winter Olympics at the age of 27.
It was late, but age was never an issue for Anna. She has just passed her 30th birthday and has not changed at all, she still likes snowboarding, as long as she stands on the snow field, all her troubles are gone.
"As long as I can ski, all the stress and failure is not a problem for me. It has always been a way of relief for me. ”
Standing on the highest podium on the veneer jump, facing the challenges of young people, 30-year-old Anna Gasser never stopped.
01 At the age of 18, I began to learn snowboarding, and my parents only thought it was rebellious
Anna was born in Austria, and before the age of 18, she lived a "standard" life, going to primary school, secondary school, high school, preparing for college...
Everything is in order, but she always wants to do something different, but she always wants to do something different.
By chance, she came into contact with snowboarding and was immediately fascinated. The freedom and unknown on the snow excited Anna.
But at that time, snowboarding in Austria was far less developed than it is now, and Anna's parents did not know what snowboarding was.
"When I explained it to them, they had no idea or what the big jump and slope obstacle skills were."
So when Anna told Mom and Dad that she wanted to be a snowboarder, Mom and Dad thought she was just rebellious.
Anna has her own ideas, "I don't know if I will become a professional in the future, but I want to use this sport as the core to plan my future life." 」 ”
After graduating from high school, Anna told her parents that she wanted to study in the United States — to learn the language.
At first, they didn't agree, and Mom and Dad wanted her to go to university in Austria and find a stable job after graduation.
"I told them that learning a new language and learning a new culture would be good for my future life."
Unable to stand Anna's soft and hard bubbles, Mom and Dad finally gave her a year to go back to college anyway.
What Mom and Dad don't know is that Anna actually wants to go to the United States to learn snowboarding.
02 Ketchup noodles six times a week
She only started learning to ski at the age of 18, and everyone thought "what is she doing" and "why is she doing this", only Anna herself believed.
Looking back now, Anna says that a large part of that belief was also due to not knowing much about snowboarding. If it is Anna now, she will also feel that she was in the dark at that time.
With a passion for blood, Anna came to the United States alone. It was the first time she had lived abroad alone, her English was not very good, she had no friends, and in the first two weeks of her arrival, many times, Anna wanted to go home.
"ShouldN't I have asked my parents if it was too late to go back?" Because they will definitely help me get home. “
Snowboarding became the motivation for her to persevere. "No matter how bad life is, as long as you put on snowshoes, everything is not a problem."
In order to learn snowboarding, Anna saved money and spent only $400 a month.
She found a very cheap place to live, and basically did not go out to eat at night, so she made her own noodles, ketchup noodles, which she ate at least six times a week. Even for Christmas, she didn't go home because the plane ticket money was too expensive for her.
The kung fu pays off, and in one year, Anna's snowboarding level has greatly improved. More importantly, it made her realize that aside from the past, there are other possibilities in life.
03 Worked in a bank and also worked as a nanny
After returning from the United States, Anna obeyed her parents' arrangement, went to college, and chose education. Although that wasn't her intention, she didn't care.
"If snowboarding doesn't work out anyway, I don't know what to do."
Unable to put down snowboarding, Anna soon dropped out of school.
At that time, she could already achieve some results in some competitions in Austria, but there was no way to support herself by skiing.
Mom and Dad would fund a part of it, she worked everywhere, worked as a nanny, also worked in the bank... But Anna never regretted it.
Six months before the Sochi Winter Olympics, Anna completed a two-week off-axis flip of 900° in a training session, and overnight, the ski world boiled over.
After the video was posted online, Anna woke up the next morning and suddenly had two thousand more followers, hundreds of text messages, emails, and countless likes.
"Just because of this one action, I went from being a complete outsider, a dark horse that no one knew, and suddenly became well known."
The sponsors quickly came to the door, the local Austrian media also reported, and when Mom and Dad saw it, "they thought: Well, she can really do it." She can be one of the top players. ”
04 The difficulty king of the late completion of the big instrument
When Anna gave up school, "almost everyone thought I was crazy, even my teacher. But after breaking through the long-dormant difficulty of women's snowboarding, people began to believe that Anna could become a professional athlete.
The pressure also followed, and at the Sochi Winter Olympics, Anna was considered a strong contender for the gold medal. In the preliminaries, she successfully advanced to the first place in her group, but made a mistake in the final, and finally only finished 18th.
Before the 2017 World Championships, Anna had the hardest difficulty of women's snowboarding, but every time she passed by the champion.
Until the World Championships in Nedahua, Anna scored a perfect score with a two-week deflection of 1080° and waited for 8 years later to win the world championship for the first time at the age of 26.
Standing on the podium, Anna cried, "I know how much effort I've put into it, and it's all on my own." ”
Until the Winter Olympics, Anna did not have her own coach. From the time she started learning snowboarding, she was learning from people she trained with or with friends.
In the United States, she trains with children who are much younger than herself, most of whom have been learning snowboarding since the age of 8, and even higher than her.
In order to improve herself, Anna chose to train with people who were more skilled. Her team is full of boys, "they are a little higher than me." So I can watch them train for a long time and learn from them. ”
After the World Championships, Anna turned on the "domination" mode, and after two weeks of completion, she thought of falling for three weeks, and she became the first female athlete in history to complete a three-week backflip.
At the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, Anna brilliantly completed the back foot two-week offset axle flipped 1080° to pocket the winter Olympic gold medal.
Age 05 is never a problem
Anna took women's snowboarding to a higher level.
After the PyeongChang Winter Olympics, snowboarding developed rapidly. Before, she also had difficulties that others had not had, but now, almost 8 female players are at a very close level.
"Maybe a little worried at first. But I think this phenomenon is very normal, it is a good thing for the sport, there will be younger players who will continue to emerge to promote the development of the sport. ”
American snowboarder Jimmy Fassani is Anna's idol.
When Anna first arrived in the United States, on the first anniversary of Fassani's two-week backflip, they met in the snow, "She thought I was great, she thought I was talented." ”
When we met again 2 years ago, Fassani didn't remember the experience, but for Anna, the encouragement at that time was too important for her.
Anna said she had witnessed Fassani break through for two weeks, and now the young athletes were witnessing her accomplishing the high difficulty, "Now they are starting to do more difficult moves." ”
But Anna had no intention of stopping. On her 30th birthday, she said, "1080° alone is not enough, for the Winter Olympics, 1260° has become the next difficulty that needs to be broken." ”
Now, she has become the first female snowboarder to complete a backflip of 1,260 degrees in training for three weeks. She said she enjoys what she's doing and is confident she can continue to improve in the coming years.
Written by Lu Chunping
Editor/Li Xu Liang Lina
Visual/Wang Ye Liu Liang