Olympian Leilani Ettel: “In Beijing: Boom! Get everything out!”

Just a few months after the Tokyo Games, the Olympic flame is lit again, this time in Beijing. Due to human rights violations in China, there is repeated talk of a possible boycott, with the corona pandemic continuing in the background. Germany halfpipe hopeful Leilani Ettel explains how she’s preparing for her Olympic debut amid these debates.

ntv.de: The Olympic Winter Games in Beijing, which are now imminent, have so far been the talk of the town, especially in non-sporting terms. Many Western countries are diplomatically boycotting the event, the corona pandemic is hanging over everything. It’s your first Olympics. How do you feel about the Olympics?

Leilani Ettel: The first emotion that comes up is joy. I don’t even know how to describe it. At the moment, that nomination is just about to drop. A lot of people watch the Olympic Games on TV as a kid and say that’s where I want to go. For me it’s all still so big that I can go to the Olympics and see all my friends there too. Of course there is Corona and other topics around it, but we are athletes. So far I have had good experiences with the competitions in China. I look forward to a perfectly groomed pipe and go there to snowboard. It’s the only thing I can focus on and the only thing in my hands. Of course it would be cool if my family could accompany me. But these circumstances are now used to during the pandemic. I see the glass half full. Even under these circumstances, it will be a special experience.

Snowboarding has been Olympic since 1998, you were born in 2001. What connection do you have to previous competitions?

Very early on – before it was Olympic – my father also competed in the halfpipe, which of course always interested my family later on. That means I was familiar with drivers like Craig Kelly, Terje Haakonsen and Todd Richards very early on. Since Sochi 2014, I’ve been following the Olympics with excitement myself. Names like Ayumu Hirano, Danny Davis, Iouri Podladtchikov, Scotty James or Chloe Kim have been my idols for a long time. It still sucks for me that I compete with some of them in contests and that I know them personally. Standing at the pipe together with these riders at the Olympics is something special. We’re such a real community when it comes to snowboarding and we’re happy for everyone who lands a run. Through the Olympics we can show the whole world that we are all there for each other. Look here: “Snowboarding is so much fun!”. That’s where my heart breaks.

Now you face off against your idols on the greatest stage in sport. What are your ambitions when you fly to Beijing?

Olympia is always a peak for our sport. I want to land the best run I have. A lot is currently open. Anything can happen when it comes to podiums and medals. I also have a few new tricks I’ve been working on over the summer. If I land those, I have a chance of a good placement. But I’ll take it step by step, I don’t want to strain my nerves too much.

Have you set yourself a minimum goal?

I definitely want to take part in the finals. The plan is to qualify with a safe, good run so that I can then go to “all or nothing” in the final. I want to go back and be able to say I did my best.

Corona is the focus just before the competitions. However, the pandemic is already accompanying you through the preparation. How complicated was the training under these conditions?

At the beginning it was unclear for a long time whether there were any training camps at all. In the first winter everything was pushed back a bit. But after that everything went according to plan. We had measures like the masks or different lift times to get up the mountain. Everyone tried to stay in their bubble. Of course it’s a pity that you’re hardly with your friends outside of the mountain, that’s not possible in the competitions either. But at least that’s how training and competitions took place. If you follow the rules and protect yourself well, you have had few problems.

In your sport you are very dependent on the infrastructure, roughly comparable to bobsleigh pilots. How does your training usually look like?

That depends on what I want to train. Of course, you can also carve and practice jumps on the normal slope. All I can say to anyone who wants to ride a halfpipe is that being able to ski well on the slopes helps. It’s all possible in Germany too, but unfortunately there is no longer a halfpipe here. So my home resort is actually Laax in Switzerland. That’s a three hour drive from me. I have one of the best halfpipes in the whole world and a huge ski area.

And how do you practice halfpipe riding without a halfpipe?

A lot of things happen in our heads in our sport. I only learned that in the last few years, as a child you don’t think about things like that very much. I’ve heard from the best coaches in the world that 90 percent of performance is in the head. Many of us review our tricks at the start. I can always do such exercises, and then there are video analyses. The German Snowboard Association has a base in Berchtesgarden where I do my strength training, which is also an important part. We don’t do it to look cool or build muscle. When you are strong and physically fit, injuries are much less likely. In Saas-Fee, a good friend of mine hit the coping, i.e. the top edge of the halfpipe, it looked bad. One might have thought that vertebrae and ribs were broken. In the end he only broke his arm because he was good in training. Stamina can be trained anywhere. In my free time, I often surf or skateboard. It’s more for fun, but it sure helps. The most important thing when I’m standing in the halfpipe is not to be restricted by my own body.

Have you thought about competing in skateboarding or surfing?

The sports are now also Olympic. The idea is always there. There are surfing competitions here in Munich, I took part in them once and it was really funny. I used to take part in small skate competitions. But that’s how it turned out in snowboarding with the contests. Maybe I’ll be a competitive surfer in another life, maybe I’ll dare to do it again in a few years. But I really like the structure that I’ve built up for myself at the moment, that I compete on my snowboard and go skateboarding or surfing for mental relaxation.

No professional rides the halfpipe permanently and then cannot list the various sprains and broken bones he has taken with him from that time. The sport is very dangerous. Now the Olympics are just around the corner. How do you find the balance between training the most difficult jumps for the Olympics while minimizing the risk of injury leading up to the competition?

I asked myself the same question before my season. In the summer and fall, I strategically set myself the last opportunity to practice new tricks and ride at my highest level. In the qualifying competitions, of course, the most important thing is to land a run first. Usually there are several World and European Cups for qualification. We only had three competitions this season. I tackled it with the aim of qualifying for Beijing with a safe run. With that, I met the requirement of the DOSB, two top 16 placements. Throughout the season: stability, security, Olympic qualification. In Beijing: Boom! knock everything out.

Do you practice individual tricks or a run as a whole? And how many times do you do a run before we see it at the Olympics?

Everyone does that differently. Routine is super important. The more times you do a trick, the more natural it becomes. At some point your muscles will know what you want to do on their own. That also gives you security. Everyone in snowboarding always talks about “reps”, i.e. repetition. There are days when you only practice one trick the whole time. Basically you start with a trick and then build your run around it step by step. And in most cases the top runs have already been done exactly like this.

If repetition is so important, do you have certain pre-competition rituals?

They play a big role. I ate the same thing for breakfast for a while. When driving in, I always have the same processes. I pat myself on the chest again before the start, others pat their boards. Everyone has their own peculiarities.

Many drivers listen to music while driving. You also?

I hardly know anyone who doesn’t listen to music while driving. It helps you focus and gives you extra motivation. I usually have a fixed playlist that I listen to before the contest. I listen to the song I like best that day before my run, then press pause and start driving. When I’m training I listen to music all the time, but I’ve given up on that for the contests, it works better for me. Most of the time I’ll stop the music before some cool part, do the run, and turn the music back on at the bottom.

What conditions do you expect in Beijing outside of sports?

I didn’t talk to other athletes, but I followed the Tokyo Games closely. There were also measures such as individual dining halls, but in the end they could also affect other people, which calmed me down a bit. I’m in Beijing for two weeks, the contest is only in the second week. I’ll have plenty of time, but I don’t know exactly what I can and can’t do yet. I hope we can look at some other competitions. But we’ve been here for so long, something will work out. What I’m particularly looking forward to is that we will be there for the opening ceremony. It will definitely be impressive.

Florian Papenfuhs spoke to Leilani Ettel.