An environmental activist wants to rock the Saslong

No one in the ski circus would classify Julian Schütter as exceptional because of his home town of Schladming. But with his beliefs and lifestyle as a “Fridays for Future” activist, vegetarian and student, the 24-year-old B squad athlete clearly stands out from his colleagues. The downhill skier wants to establish himself in the World Cup as soon as possible in order to be able to give environmental issues in skiing a larger platform. “That is one of my main motivations,” said Schütter. As is well known, skiing is often criticized for its less than careful use of environmental resources. “It's just been the case several times over the last few years that I've had a hard time justifying to myself why I'm still doing this with this huge ecological footprint that I have. And then I seriously considered a few times whether I should just leave it alone,” admitted the ÖSV runner before his first World Cup appearance in Val Gardena. But he then decided that he wanted to try to become a kind of mouthpiece for climate concerns through sporting achievements and the attention that comes with them. “That was definitely a strong argument why I wanted to continue. That perhaps at some point I will have the reach, can enlighten people, can inspire people and thereby do more good than harm,” reported Schütter, who made his World Cup debut in Lake Louise just two and a half weeks ago. He described the move from Schladming to Innsbruck a good year and a half ago as an important step. Because in the North Tyrolean state capital he joined the “Fridays for Future” movement. "I've seriously considered a few times whether I should just let it go." Schütter about ski racing “I would have liked to have been more involved before then. But from Schladming I wasn’t in the circles where I could have done much,” he said. “Before that, I was already aware that something needed to be done, and then in Innsbruck I got into action.” His specific area of activity? “In the summer I helped out a bit with the organization of the Innsbruck regional group. I helped organize the major strike that took place in August.” Somersaults in deep snow During the sporting season in winter there is hardly any time for his commitment, especially since Schütter is also doing the distance learning course “Industrial Engineering for Renewable Energy”. “At some point I thought to myself that I would like to have a degree and a more concrete curriculum,” explained the Styrian. But he knew “that face-to-face studying would not work out”. Schütter is still able to use the two skis off the standard pistes, but is now a little more moderate. In the past he sometimes exaggerated the number of his somersaults. However, switching to freestyler is out of the question, “I started too late for that.” In Val Gardena, Schütter is expected to gain valuable experience in all three races this week.

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An environmental activist wants to rock the Saslong

He is a passionate deep snow skier and ski acrobat, he is a member of the “Fridays for Future” movement and has already helped organize a major strike. We're talking about Julian Schütter, an Austrian ski professional who wants to draw attention to himself in Val Gardena these days.

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