Top things to know about the resilient Wendy Holdener

It’s not always easy being an alpine skiing slalom specialist in the era of Mikaela Shiffrin and Petra Vlholva but that hasn’t stopped Wendy Holdener from trying.

The Swiss speedster is renowned for holding the record for most FIS Alpine Skiing World Cup slalom podium finishes without ever having recorded a race win - the second place at Kranjska Gora on 9th January 2022 was Holdener's 29th top-three finish in the discipline.

It’s a statistic that both captures her competition environment and her relentless pursuit to try and overcome it.

Though a World Cup slalom victory might be the one accolade she is missing, the 28-year-old certainly makes up for it elsewhere. Since her World Cup debut in 2010 aged 17, Holdener has amassed two small crystal globes for discipline season dominance in alpine combined (2016, 2018) and claimed four World Championship medals, of which three are gold.

Her grandest sweep of them all came at the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang when the skier was crowned a triple Olympic medallist. Holdener took gold in the mixed team event, silver in the slalom, and bronze in the combined – meaning she has clinched a metal of every shade.

Trophies aside, and with Beijing 2022 fast approaching, here are the top things you should know about Wendy Holdener.

Wendy Holdener: a speed demon motivated by her brothers

Alpine skiing, with its gruelling physical demands and high stakes, is certainly not for the faint-hearted.

That dimension of the sport, however, has never been a problem for Holdener who exhibited the right kind of boldness from an early age.

“I had it in my blood since I first skied,” the Swiss told the She Is Speaking podcast. “I can imagine I was really ambitious the minute I was put on skis because I have two older brothers and I always wanted to ski really fast down the hill and catch them.

“I would say to my mother ‘Hey, let’s go! Don’t talk with your friends, I want to ski.’”

The champion skier's parents – Daniela and Martin Holdener – confirmed in an interview with Blick that their daughter’s fearlessness has always been one of her qualities. There was nothing she wouldn't dare to do when pursuing her two older brothers growing up.

“Steve is five years older, and Kevin is three [years older than Wendy],” began Daniela. “When they jumped from the three-metre board in the pool, Wendy flew after them. When she had something on her mind, she would pull it off. On skis, she was never afraid of speed or jumps."

Wendy Holdener: disciplined and determined

It will come.

That’s what many, including most recently ski legend Vreni Schneider, say whenever there is mention of the three-time Olympic medallist’s slalom World Cup podium record.

It’s the kind of talk that signals pressure and it’s not the only thing Holdener must negotiate.

As one of Switzerland’s most successful female alpine skiers, alongside Sochi 2014 medallist Lara Gut-Behrami, there are certain expectations placed on her.

According to Holdener’s parents their daughter does not typically shy away from what she sets her mind to. The skier has always been deeply ambitious and ready to do whatever it takes to try to get to the top:

“There were days when Wendy couldn’t do her stretches because she was too busy,” Martin continued to Blick. “And what did she do? Late at night she took her mat into the living room to stretch."

Daniela even admitted insisting her daughter do it the next day but for the driven skier it was non-negotiable.

“The year before last she asked: ‘I’m going to ride my bike for an hour, will you come with me too?’” says Holdener’s father, recalling another time he was in awe of his daughter’s discipline. “It was pouring rain. I said she use the exercise bike in the living room. But Wendy went outside and drove away in the rain.”

The Wendy Holdener Fan Club, Grillfest and cow bells

Just before the Junior World Championships back in 2011, Holdener’s eldest brother agreed that if she won a medal at the competition, he would help establish a fan club for her.

The Swiss more than smashed the target, taking home not one, but three medals. Following her roaring success, which at the time heralded her as a rising star to watch, her brother and the founding president of the club soon got to work launching 'The Wendy Holdener Fan Club.'

It didn't take long for the group to kick off, within four years the fan club had over 180 members. Nowadays over 800 people are officially members with over 2000 people following her fan page on Facebook.

As well as updating fans on her progress with videos and entertaining them with competitions the Swiss also does something rather unique to thank those that lend her their backing.

In 2012, the fan club held its first barbecue with Holdener; at the time the event was small with around 50 members attending. It was an occasion so successful that the barbecues are now hosted every year. At the last edition in May 2019 – before the global pandemic put the annual affair on pause - 400 people took part.

In fact, so devoted are the Swiss skier’s contingent, they are renowned for their presence at Holdener's competitions, often seen wearing special dresses and playing cow bells to signal their support.

Wendy Holdener: the mind behind the mastery

Every ski racer has their own unique approach when it comes to tackling their events.

For Holdener, that means having a team of people behind her so she can compete at her best. From someone who helps her select the skis she needs based on the conditions to someone analysing her personal statistics throughout the season, every inch of performance is covered.

One thing the technical specialist does herself to prepare for races is to visualise the course before launching herself out of the start gate.

“I nearly know each gate,” the Switzerland star explained on the She Is Speaking podcast. “I know where’s steeper, how many turns there are. If there is a banana - that means if two gates are on the same side - and how the snow is.”

Her meticulous eye for detail, Holdener admits, is to counteract the fact that the slope is naturally always different. Though the venues on the World Cup calendar don’t often change, there are several factors as to why the course might look completely different from the year before, and that for the two-time crystal globe winner, is one of the most challenging aspects of her sport:

“The slope is always different; the snow is always different, and the course setting is different. You just can’t slip through the course.”

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