The ease with which Johannes Strolz was finally able to talk about his dad was noticeable. In the finish area of the Olympic course, Hubert Strolz was of course one of the names that came up most often, the Austrian Olympic champion from 1988 in Calgary, who had so sensationally won gold in the then supreme discipline of combined. And that without ever having won a World Cup race before.
Johannes Strolz had heard the comparison all his life, from his father, the Olympic champion, from the medal that is at home in Bludenz and from the fact that one day he could do the same thing with his skiing career. He did that in Yanging, 34 years later there is a second Olympic champion from the Strolz house. And like the first time, it’s a sensation.
Johannes Ewald Strolz is on top of the podium: the Austrian now has a gold medal.
(Photo: Christian Hartmann/Reuters)
“I don’t have any pressure from him,” Strolz said later about his father: “He’s my dad and not the Olympic champion, that’s a good thing. As a child you need a father and not an Olympic champion, dad always was.” Even if Strolz was just Johannes at home, in public the addition “son of Olympic champion Hubert” was always a companion in a career that did not bring great success for a long time. Strolz, 29, injured himself several times, had difficulty finding his place in the competitive Austrian slalom squad and finally flew out completely: before the season he was no longer part of the elite group, a career end was the more realistic scenario than participating in the Olympics.
The Olympic competition was a striking example of the problems of combination
But Strolz didn’t give up, fought his way back through smaller races and also prepared his own skis in the World Cup because he was no longer officially part of the team. No service man repaired his Olympic skis either, Strolz had to go his own way again and again, even if he emphasized that he always had the support of his family: “They always believed in me,” he said.
Dad always said that everything had its time and was right: In January, Strolz won the slalom in Adelboden with an outstanding second run. It was his first World Cup victory, and the international ski circuit rejoiced with him because everyone knew that hardly anyone had worked as hard to get back to the top of the world as Strolz.
This is what father Hubert Strolz looked like in 1988 in Calgary with his gold medal.
(Photo: Werek Press Photo Agency/Imago)
Now, as an Olympic champion, he is at the top of his sport and perhaps it was also part of the romantic story of father and son that the man from Vorarlberg used what was possibly his last chance to emulate his father. In any case, Strolz won a super combined competition ahead of the Norwegian Aleksander Aamodt Kilde and the Canadian James Crawford, who should have no future like this. 34 years later, the combination is no longer the supreme discipline, but the leftover from a time when the world’s best skiers didn’t specialize in one or two disciplines, but skied everything. With the current number of races and the strain on the athletes, that alone is no longer conceivable.
The Olympic competition on Thursday was another remarkable example of the problems of the combination: Strolz and Kilde, both after good performances in the downhill and slalom early in a promising lead, had enough time in the finish area to talk about all sorts of family stories . Until the last of the 27 registered runners had fought their way through the slalom or dropped out. About the only German starter Simon Jocher, who dropped out and later regretted his participation.
There was no longer any tension, and the number of medal contenders was so small that only the failure of Frenchman Alexis Pinturault in the slalom really caused a stir. It doesn’t matter to Strolz, a gold medal is a gold medal, only the World Ski Association FIS has to give final thought to the combination with regard to Cortina 2026.
On the contrary, the man from Vorarlberg has the chance to finish one last chapter in the family story at these Olympic Games, one that didn’t end with a romantic story. Hubert Strolz won the 1988 Games and four years later was again in the lead in the combination in Albertville – until he failed shortly before his second gold medal. His son, on the other hand, has another realistic chance of coming back to Bludenz with more than one medal in the slalom next Wednesday.