From the gin distillery to the racing track

The World Cup season for telemarker Raphael Mahlknecht was actually supposed to start last weekend in France. However, due to lack of snow, the races had to be canceled. The season starts on January 18th and 19th at the Karerpass in the Carezza ski area, which took over the World Cup at short notice – especially thanks to Mahlknecht’s initiative: “I’m looking forward to it, this will be my first real World Cup home race. This is a great gift." This is the first time that the Telemark World Cup has ever stopped in South Tyrol. A total of around 1 World Cup races are on the program this season.

Mahlknecht, the only South Tyrolean who practices this sport competitively, wants to pick up where he left off last season: attack the top placings. Most recently he made it into the top 10 several times in the Elite World Cup, coming 4th in the sprint in Slovenia in March last year, he narrowly missed his first podium. “If things continue like this, then I’ll be happy,” he looks ahead. At the Junior World Championships last year in Mürren, Switzerland, he celebrated his greatest success to date with bronze in the parallel sprint, but the now 21-year-old is no longer eligible to compete in the junior division this season. Sooner or later, the young South Tyrolean would like to reach for World Championship medals among the elite riders.

Raphael Mahlknecht goes full throttle as a telemarker.

When it comes to telemarking in South Tyrol, things are difficult away from the piste. “It's just an absolutely fringe sport in Italy, and most of the training continues with foreign national teams, such as the Norwegians and Swiss,” explains Mahlknecht, who as a “Telemark ambassador” wants to use his successes to make the sport better known in South Tyrol.

Because it is not an Olympic discipline, admission to a state sports group is difficult. Mahlknecht did inquire, but unfortunately the telemark sport does not receive proper attention in Italy. “The sports group is not my goal either,” emphasizes the athlete from Völs, who competes for the Ski Club Val Gardena. “It would be more of a restriction, especially professionally.” Mahlknecht about the lack of support from a sports group On the contrary: without a state job it would be easier for him. “It would be more of a restriction, especially professionally. “I am freer and can concentrate on my second passion,” says Mahlknecht. This passion is entrepreneurship - in addition to tourism, another mainstay for Mahlknecht. More precisely, it is about the distribution of organic gin. He recently registered his own company and his “Seiser Alm Mountain Gin” is already known in large parts of South Tyrol. In the summer he also helps out diligently in the local business at Camping Seiser Alm.

A few years ago, when Mahlknecht signed a sponsorship agreement with Limestone, a South Tyrolean organic tonic water manufacturer, he came up with the idea of marketing his own gin. Last summer the time had finally come and his own creation was born. “But that shouldn’t be it,” he laughs. After all, the young Völser still has a lot to do when it comes to gin creations and Telemark.

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From the gin distillery to the racing track

Marketing your own gin, helping out at your local campsite and at the same time making history as a winter sports enthusiast: a young South Tyrolean has big plans.

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