The ski couple is flirting together. © KEYSTONE / ALESSANDRO DELLA VALLE

Ski romance: "I won't give him away anymore"

The ski season has not even started yet and an Austrian star athlete is already celebrating her greatest victory.

06 November 2024

From: det

“It’s almost kitsch,” Stephanie Venier told Kleine Zeitung. The Austrian speed specialist is riding a wave of success – in her sport, but also in her private life. Last winter, the 30-year-old won two World Cups and landed on the podium twice more. And she found true love in Christian Walder (he is also a skier).

"I'm not giving him away anymore. We're not letting each other go. We saw each other back then and knew it was a good fit. Christian has a dry sense of humour, so we joke around a lot, but that takes the spice out of it and keeps us young," the star skier told the Kleine Zeitung.

"I'm not giving him away anymore." Stephanie Venier

At the beginning of the year, the two made their love official, which was not without its share of controversy. After all, Walder was a couple with Venier's teammate Cornelia Hütter for ten years. However, the trio quickly made it clear that the new love was not a problem for anyone.

The friend is "not feeling well"

While Venier is attacking next winter, her friend is suffering. Christian Walder competed in his last World Cup race in November 2022, and since then he has been struggling with persistent back problems. "I'm not feeling well at the moment. Pole training is not yet conceivable. The nerve still radiates to the little toe," says Walder.

Stephanie Venier wants to attack again this year. © NTB / GEIR OLSEN

His Stephanie also suffers with him: "He often doesn't tell me when he's in pain because he doesn't want to bring me down. It's slow and drags on brutally. But he's extremely hard-working, we train together to find what works and he does a lot of therapy." Let's hope that the two of them can soon make a splash on the ski slopes together again.