‘Keep believing, keep fighting, and everything will be OK’: Swiss ski cross champion Regez

Newly crowned Men’s and Mixed Team ski cross World Champion Ryan Regez (SUI) feels incredibly lucky to have won two titles in front of a home crowd during his comeback 2024/25 season.

But luck is just one part of the story behind the 32-year-old’s success at the 2025 FIS Snowboard, Freestyle and Freeski World Championships in Engadin, Switzerland.

“Yesterday was a lucky day, a very lucky day,” Regez said of the men’s competition on Friday 21 March that culminated in a thrilling final with Tobias Mueller (GER), Ryo Sugai (JPN), and Youri Duplessis-Kergomard (FRA).

“But it doesn’t matter – I was there when and where I needed to be to make the magic happen.”

Twenty-four hours after claiming his maiden World Championships title, Regez went on to share Mixed Team gold with Fanny Smith on Saturday after the pair beat the France 2 team of Melvin Tchiknavorian and Jade Grillet-Aubert in a photo finish. Italy’s Yanick Gunsch and Jole Galli took bronze.

“I'm just extremely proud of myself for overcoming everything that has been thrown at me, and standing up again and again and just fighting, continuing on,” said Regez, who returned to World Cup competition in December 2024 after recovering from an anterior cruciate knee ligament (ACL) injury he sustained in December 2022.

The injury left the Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games gold medallist wondering if he would ever race again.

“After the Olympics … I was flying high and just riding the wave, and just being on top of everything, and then you get injured.

“You just get thrown so hard to the ground. The thing is, if you were so high up, the fall is devastating, and that really took a toll.”

Regez considers himself lucky because he was able to get professional help and focus on his mental health, a process which taught him a lot about himself.

“Well, you kind of need to face your demons, which isn't the most pleasant part (laughs),” he said.

“I mean, the thing you love most gets taken away – which is moving, in sports, in skiing and doing all that – so it's really hard to stay motivated.”

Regez’s perseverance in facing his demons has ultimately given him a ski cross ‘career slam’ of an Olympic Winter Games gold medal, his men’s World title in Engadin, and the FIS Crystal Globe from the 2021/22 season.

“I learned a lot about myself. I learned a lot about patience, believing, fighting, working – working towards something which is in the far future, sports-wise – and just believing in the bigger picture,” he said.

“Obviously I was lucky. You have to be healthy and in the right form, and at the right place at the right time to make this stuff happen. But I mean, after the Olympics in 2022, and now here – it's just absolutely incredible.”

Despite all the challenges Regez has faced since his ACL injury, the 32-year-old said he would not tell his younger self to do anything differently based on what he knows now.

“I wouldn't give my younger self any advice other than to say, ‘keep fighting, keep believing’. Because everything I’ve done on the way made me into the person I am today,” said Regez.