Austria’s Haemmerle hoping for successful China comeback

The last time Austrian snowboarder Alessandro Haemmerle visited China, he came away with an Olympic gold medal.

Haemmerle triumphed at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games, taking gold ahead of Canada’s Eliot Grondin in his biggest win to date. Now, the Austrian is set to return to China as the resort of Beidahu hosts its first-ever FIS Snowboard Cross World Cup at the end of January.

Ahead of the competition, the Austrian team are also having a training camp at Secret Garden, to get themselves acclimatized to the time zone and the Chinese snow conditions.

“I hope the courses are nice, but China has always provided so far, so it’s a pretty good ground for me and I hope it will stay the same,” he adds.

But Haemmerle’s run into the 2024/25 season has not been straightforward. He suffered a back injury ahead of the first World Cup in Cervinia and had to sit out that weekend. Just before the New Year, he posted on social media to confirm he was back on the board and “happy to go sideways again”.

“The recovery process is more or less at an up and down phase. I had a lot of pain in the beginning but it’s feeling like we’re going forwards at the end of the rehab. There’s still some work to do so I will take it easy,” Haemmerle says.

“Even though I can snowboard there’s still some way left to go back into competition, but I’m confident I’ll be back for China,” he adds.

Haemmerle knows about the challenges of coming back from injury. He missed much of the 2022/23 season through concussion, but came back to finish second overall in the World Cup standings in 2023/24.

“It’s a step-by-step process, not going too fast too quick otherwise you’ll mess it up – I know that from experience,” he explains. “So taking it easy is really tough on the body and for the mental side. The motivation is high and I want to be back 100 per cent before entering competition.”

But the Austrian will surely take confidence from the success of last year, with five podium finishes across the World Cup tour – including double wins on home snow in Montafon. Looking back at last year, Haemmerle says those victories were the highlight.

“It was really a lot of pressure there for me riding, and especially with the races beforehand which weren’t that promising. We had some issues, also with the material, with the boards, we missed some speed at some races.

“It was an up and down season with some ups at the end, but overall I was pretty happy with my riding. I saw some things where I could improve and I’ve been working on that lately. I’ve been on a good level before the injury, and I hope to be back really soon.”

Haemmerle is remaining cautious about the competitions ahead, but his sights are set firmly on the end of the season, when the World Cup tour heads back to Montafon, just a week before the World Championships in Switzerland.

“It’s pretty hard to put my hopes for the upcoming season into words. The heights are definitely the world championships and the home world cup in Montafon, so I just hope to be at 100 per cent there, which is the main focus for me,” he says.

Montafon holds a special place in Haemmerle’s heart, and he says the venue is his favourite place to ride.

“I just know the mountains so well and I know the conditions. I can’t wait for some deep snow. Pretty much the only thing I like more than riding snowboard cross is riding powder. I was really happy during the days at home when there was a lot of fresh snow,” he says, adding that being able to snowboard in Montafon during his rehabilitation was hugely motivating.

And so Haemmerle is confident he will be on the start line in Beidahu in a few weeks’ time, facing up against the rest of the world’s best. He watched the World Cup in Cervinia in December at home, and says: “At the moment it’s hard to tell which are the riders to look out for. Of course the first race gave us a good example, I think Jakob [Dusek] and Eliot [Grondin] are hot for sure. Same as Merlin [Surget], I think he’s also one of the really fast guys.”

All being well, Haemmerle will get to test his own speed and recovery against Dusek, Grondin and the rest in Beidahu, where he is hoping that his past success in China will repeat.