In Oberperfuss near Innsbruck, a Swiss downhill skier is the big star: Beat Feuz. He won people’s sympathy – and the local tennis championship. The NZZ visited him four years ago during the 2018 games.
On June 22, 2014 at 3:40 p.m., people in Oberperfuss founded a Beat Feuz fan club. It now has a little over a hundred members, the manager’s name is Mario Larl, he’s a locksmith in the village – and now he’s typing around on his cell phone and says: “Not online anymore, Beat is already sleeping.”
It’s the first night that Beat Feuz sleeps into something like the Olympic victory, the night from Saturday to Sunday last weekend. In South Korea it is already 1 a.m., in Oberperfuss it is Saturday, 5 p.m.; the people are waiting for the evening and the masked ball of the fire brigade. The Olympic downhill is to take place in South Korea in ten hours, the hard core of the Oberperfer Feuz fan club will gather in front of a television at 3 a.m.
Oberperfuss is in Austria, Feuz is Swiss, “but just as comfortable as we are, you can talk to him”, and that, for example, is one reason why the Oberperfer founded the fan club back then, at 3:40 p.m. And Feuz is “Yes, also club champions in tennis”, people say it as if this news had been broadcast on all TV channels in the world. But to be honest, it was only really official in the “Oberperfer Dorfblatt” from last December. It was said that in singles, “Beat Feuz, an old acquaintance, was crowned club champion 2017” – “the ‘Kugelblitz’ thus overwintered as number 1 of SV Oberperfuss Tennis”.
Feuz plays soccer
They like it, their Emmental ball lightning, which comes and goes in Oberperfuss. He lives on the other side of Innsbruck, in Aldrans, but probably not for long, and above all a girl from Oberperf gave him his heart, Katrin Triendl, who used to be a ski racer. Larl, the head of the fan club, met Feuz when they visited Katrin’s brother in the hospital. We got talking, and Larl asked Feuz if he played football too, and Feuz said: “Yes, yes,” and Larl: “That’s right.” Because they, the people from Oberperfuss, organized an annual international football tournament in which teams from all over Tyrol took part, whether Beat would like to play too. “It fits,” said Beat, too, and brought two teams from Schangnau, his homeland. The tournament takes place on a court which is fenced off, that’s why it’s called a “cage tournament”, and from then on it really was as international and world-renowned as the masked ball and Feuz’s status as the world’s best top-perf tennis player.
But Feuz is not only a club champion, but also a world champion. On February 12, 2017, he won world championship gold in the downhill. The women’s World Cup downhill took place on the same day, 2nd place, coincidence, coincidence: Stephanie Venier. She comes from Oberperfuss, that’s right, her address is: Dickicht 8 A, right next to the valley station of the gondola lift, a location advantage à la Feuz, who grew up next to a ski lift that his grandfather had built. Yes, yes, Venier also has a fan club, it’s a bit smaller, say the people from the Feuz fan club, they’re not members there.
Oberperfuss is 15 kilometers outside of Innsbruck, up the mountain, and once you’re there, it’s still further up the mountain and further and higher, as if the road led to some unknown paradise. The locals divide Oberperfuss into the upper lane and the lower lane, those from the upper lane are a bit different, says a woman from the upper lane, “we might stick together a bit more”. The children still go to kindergarten together, but after that there is an elementary school, one for the lower and one for the upper lane, and so everything gets a bit lost in this village of 3,000 people, where everyone greets each other, if only out of decency is.
The head of the fan club, Larl, is standing in front of his locksmith’s shop, a car drives by, he waves, there comes a pedestrian, he greets. On a frame in the locksmith’s shop, under slats and iron bars, lies the large banner rolled up, which the Oberperfer carry with them when they visit Feuz at a race. At the end of January they traveled to Garmisch-Partenkirchen, 52 people, Feuz won and posed for a photo with the fans, relaxed like them.
Fan club manager Mario Larl (right) and cashier Mathias Wegscheider roll up a fan poster – which is currently being stored in Larl’s locksmith shop.
On this afternoon, however, everything seems quite lonely. There are signs on the side of the road: honey for sale, reservation of Christmas trees, horse boxes for rent, “regular grazing possible” – and in the houses there are a thousand stories that nobody tells.
A man comes along, no, he’s not a member of the fan club, but maybe he’ll think about it if Feuz becomes his neighbor. Feuz bought land in Oberperfuss, “right?” whether the contract had already been signed. “No,” someone replies, obviously nobody really knows, and anyone who does know doesn’t want to say it. Stories stop, up lane, down lane. “He’s going to be a father now,” someone says. Right. Feuz announced it himself, online.
Club champion Feuz
In front of a sports shop, an elderly gentleman puts sleds into a car, leisurely and practiced, rented sleds from people who have gone down the mountain on the toboggan run. He has been working here for almost half a century, there are posters of ski stars from the past. “A picture of the beat?” – no, he doesn’t have it anywhere, but he keeps stringing Feuz’ tennis rackets. He is club champion, the Beat, because he is so fast. Rarely before has he seen someone who has such thick thighs and is as fast as Beat, says the gentleman.
He does not want to reveal his name, and when asked whether he is a fan club member, he says no. “No, no”, that’s something for the young people, besides: There’s also Stephanie Venier in the village, and you can’t be in one fan club and not in the other, you have to remain neutral. And by the way, whether you’ve heard that Feuz has bought a property, well, he doesn’t know himself either, “there’s a lot of talk.”
A subtle light is on in the inn opposite, the menu says “Beat-Feuz-Cordon-bleu mit Pommes”, 19 euros, only sparkling wine is more expensive. The cordon bleu is such a thing, the innkeepers say, there are always people who come here just for this meal, but actually they only have capacity for hotel guests; it seems that the feuz meat has become a little prominent, “but if you sit down right away, we’ll be happy to serve you one”.
The Beat Feuz Cordon Bleu.
The night of departure
10 p.m., the village still seems so deserted, as if it were too small for a fan club trip with 52 people, but it comes alive in the gym, masked ball! Two people have dressed up as grandma and grandpa, a beekeeper is chasing a bee or vice versa. Etc. And with all the masks, you no longer know who is actually waiting for the Olympic downhill run and who is waiting for something else in life.
This is followed by the cancellation of the race, too much wind in South Korea. At 3 a.m. a bass is still pounding in the gym, every now and then someone is looking for their way home.
And from Wednesday to Thursday the next night follows, in which Feuz sleeps offline towards the Olympic victory. Maybe it would have been too much in Oberperfuss, the masked ball and a gold medal in the same night.
It tasted very good, the cordon bleu with Emmental. But that’s something that shouldn’t necessarily be told.