Athlete of the Week: Bernhard Gruber (AUT)

The past weekend could be subtitled “The resurrection of Bernhard Gruber” in many ways. Not only did the 35-year-old Austrian veteran return to the top step of the podium in the Team Sprint event with Willi Denfil, he also overcame a lot of obstacles in a less than perfect season to reach this point again.

Sidelines by an appendicitis and the following surgery until early January, Gruber struggled with his jumps until he managed to drop one of his fabled “Berni-bomb” jumps again, in the large hill event at the Olympics in Korea of all places. To his team’s dismay and Gruber’s desperation, he fell aftter the landing, so that all his efforts were fruitless in the individual events.

The team bronze medal together with fellow veterans Willi Denifl and Lukas Klapfer and young teammate Mario Seidl was a nice consolation prize but everybody who knows Bernhard Gruber knows that his ambition burns hotly and that he will be visibly chafing on anything less than his set goals.

The Lahti weekend had Gruber returning to a different level of self-esteem, visible in his body language. It has been a while since a Bernhard Gruber could be seen skiing for his life, skis and poles flying in all directions, on the final stretch of a race and even edging out sprinting prodigy Jørgen Graabak for victory, admittedly assisted by “rocket skis” as Gruber praised the efforts of his service team.

But also the following individual event saw Gruber return to former strength, even if a weaker jump had him start from the 20th position only. Overtaking ten skiers on the way, Gruber salvaged a Top Ten position by setting the second-fastest cross-country time, no small feat with big names like Alessandro Pittin, Magnus Moan, Magnus Krog or Mikko Kokslien on start.

For the Austrian team and the entire World Cup, it’s enriching to have Berni “the Burner” back in contention. We are looking forward to what else the end of the season might bring for him.