Sigi's tips: Grassl's courageous return

Daniel Grassl should receive a medal for his courage before the Grand Prix finale starts in Turin. The 20-year-old South Tyrolean has decided not to continue training in the USA. After just three months of visiting Massachusetts, he booked a flight back to Europe. A one-time ticket. Why is that brave? Grassl left the sporting nest in which he grew up and fledged. Boston instead of Neumarkt. There can hardly be a bigger difference.

And now he's returning. Remorseful, purified, disappointed, frustrated. Who knows. I would rather think that he realized in time that the world in one of the oldest cities in the USA could not be his, despite excellent training conditions. The highly talented figure skater has an experience at a young age that some people avoid for a lifetime. He has to admit a certain amount of failure and accept a wrong decision. And he had to draw the right conclusion and knock on the door again at home. This takes courage.

The Würth Arena remains home Haven't we all wanted to turn our backs on our usual lives? Get out of the confines that sometimes seem to hold us mercilessly. Maybe in the eternal sun? Emigration is easy. They are mostly dreams that always become a little more intense when things are not going well, regardless of the relationship. Then the longing beckons, combined with the hope that everything would be better somewhere else.

Daniel Grassl is the focus. © ANSA / GUILLAUME HORCAJUELO

Things were good at Grassl. Lorenzo Magri trained him into one of the best figure skaters in Europe at the “Grey Goose Academy” in the Neumarkt Würth Arena. The journey was crowned by winning the silver medal at the 2021 European Championships in Tallin. The 7th place at the Olympic Games showed that Grassl can also convince against the strong armada from the USA and Japan, because this is exactly the challenge he is facing again. And it may have played a small role that the big Grand Prix finale is taking place in Turin, of all places. At least it could have been a small piece of the mosaic in his decision-making.

He is back in his environment, also from a linguistic point of view. Grassl was disappointed; he may have become a little cocky because, like many people, he was of course of the opinion that the USA was the land of unlimited opportunities, even in his field. And this cannot be dismissed out of hand, as many internationally recognized trainers teach there. Olga Gantischeva and Alexei Letov in Boston are also among them. Grassl had asked around beforehand and did not enter into the new liaison lightly or unprepared.

Fight against four Japanese His return is not a failure, not at all. It's more likely that someone passed their school leaving exam at a young age. Of course, his campaign, which lasted just three months, was not without impact. Daniel Grassl is now the focus of attention at the upcoming event in Turin (from today on Eurosport) even more than is already the case as a local hero.

It is necessary to assess your chances fairly in sporting terms, because normally a figure skater with a fourth place in two Grand Prix competitions (Boston) and one victory (Sheffield) does not get into a final. The fact that this worked this season is also due to the special circumstance that the South Tyrolean did not face the strongest competition, especially during his success in Sheffield. In addition, the Japanese Yuzuru Hanyu is no longer there and Olympic champion Nathan Chen is taking care of his academic training and has missed the season so far. Grassl, of course, took advantage of the opportunity and will now meet four Japanese in Turin and, above all, the American Ilia Malinin, who was the first figure skater in the world to jump a quadruple Axel in an official competition.

The return to Italian ice will therefore be anything but a sure-fire success for Daniel Grassl, no matter how many quadruple jumps he offers. For the Merano native, it's primarily about finding his footing again. In the truest sense of the word, even if he has to do this on narrow runners. If he comes sixth in Turin it wouldn't be a problem, because his participation alone makes him the sixth best figure skater in the world at the moment. And four Japanese are normally not allowed to compete at the World Championships. It's nice that Daniel Grassl will be training in Neumarkt again in the future so that he can discover his figure skating world from there. It probably became clear to him in the cold foreign land that perhaps things are most beautiful at home. Especially at Christmas time. Only those who have had this experience themselves know the true meaning of this insight. Welcome back.

About the author: Sigi Heinrich The multi-award-winning sports journalist (including the German Television Prize and the Bavarian Sports Prize), author and Eurosport commentator devotes his regular column “Sigi's Peaks” to the entire diversity of sport and sometimes poaches in foreign terrain. Sometimes with a smiling wink, sometimes dead serious or deliberately provocative. There should be something for everyone. Since 1998 he has also commented on all figure skating competitions for Eurosport.

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Sigi's tips: Grassl's courageous return

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