Exclusive: ‘We really are a family’ – Nina O’Brien and River Radamus on US skiing and keeping perspective
Updated 15/11/2024 at 08:17 GMT
Ahead of the Alpine Skiing World Cup meet at Levi, Finland this weekend US skiing stars Nina O’Brien and River Radamus each chatted to Pete Sharland about the strength of camaraderie within the group and how important it is to celebrate each other’s victories. They also both discussed the importance of keeping perspective and how they are able to do that.
Flashback: Vonn secures her first World Cup win in the downhill at Lake Louise in 2004!
Video credit: TNT Sports
Sometimes things don’t go exactly the way you intend. In fact, in life it can often feel that things never seem to go the way you plan.
Take these interviews Eurosport conducted with both Nina O’Brien and River Radamus of the US ski team on separate days this week.
The plan had initially been to use one ahead of this weekend to help preview the racing in Levi – live on Eurosport and Discovery+ in case you were wondering – and then maybe use another later in the season ahead of the North American leg of the tour. And that is without even considering Lindsey Vonn dropping her long-rumoured return to racing yesterday!
But the core of both interviews (that, yes, were conducted before the Vonn news was confirmed) stood out so much, we decided to bring both together as one. That theme was the family that the US Ski Team has built for themselves.
Consider this. With the World Cup season truly getting underway in Levi on November 16, skiers will race for eleven straight weekends, then race at the World Championships in Austria for two and a half weeks, before racing for another five weekends. That’s nearly five months without a break. Of that, the North American skiers typically get three race weekends racing at home (this year the season finale is also in the US), and the rest they spend in Europe away from friends and family.
So is it any wonder they develop such tight bonds on the tour? You can feel the pride in both O’Brien and Radamus as they discussed this aspect of their sport.
“I feel like growing up, I lived that same story you're talking about, where you look up to the Norwegians, and the Austrians and the Swiss, and you expect that from them,” O’Brien tells Eurosport. “And we've had so many great American ski stars of our own but I mean this team that we built is really who I grew up with, and they're not just my friends, they're my childhood ski buddies.
“AJ [Hurt] unfortunately couldn't be there but she and I started skiing together when we were around eight years old or something back in Palisades, Tahoe. And now Paula [Moltzan], Katie [Hensien] and we've been training together as a team for, I don't know, maybe it's been five years or so and it feels like we've really built this.
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USA's Nina O'Brien reacts during the second run of the women's Giant Slalom of the FIS Alpine Ski World Cup in Soelden, Austria, on October 26, 2024.
Image credit: Getty Images
“Which is pretty cool and to actually see it pay off in all of us, being up there on the result sheet. I think it's something we're all really proud of.
“This team has been together for a while but we really are a family on the road. We don't get to go home to our family so I live my own emotions of the day, whether it was good or bad, but you end up living it with your team-mates too.
“And hopefully the way it works out is that we're all there celebrating each other on our best days and we're helping support each other when it's not going so well but that's something that I think really takes time to build and for better or for worse - I would say for better - we have had the time together and we really built it over years together. So I think we know each other's battles and have lived them together.”
You want to know how tight this team is? Listen to the superstar, Mikaela Shiffrin, who although often trains alone, is always keen to point out her team-mates. Here she is talking to Eurosport after finishing fifth in Solden, which by any stretch of the imagination is a disappointment for her.
“Unbelievable, I actually just thought, Katie, Nina, Paula too. They’ve been skiing so well every training day, I’ve been really impressed. It was actually an amazing day!”
And when you watch the video, you can see the joy on her face, you can feel the emotion almost pouring out of her.
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'An amazing day!' - Shiffrin disappointed with second run but thrilled for team-mates
Video credit: TNT Sports
Radamus echoed his team-mates' thoughts a couple of days later, putting into perspective just how long they spend away from home, as well as emphasising just how important celebrating each other’s successes is.
“I think we have a big team, but I think in some senses we have a small-team mentality in that we really feel sometimes it's us versus the world, especially in such a European-dominated sport.
“And so we stick together really tightly and we want to make sure that we are able to go out on race day and make everybody remember our team's name.
“I spend three, four maybe five times as many days with my team than I do with my family or my girlfriend. So these guys are my family, and we live and die by each other's results, and we want everything for each other.
“I think that's a really cool and special thing to be a part of. I've never felt such a good, tight-knit, team chemistry, as we have right now because we all have, like I said, gone through war in the summer, pushed ourselves to the absolute limit every single day together and held each other accountable to that.
“So when we go out there I'm aiming to win the race, we all are, but if I don't win the race, the only guy I want to win the race is an American, so we've got a really tight bond in that way and I think that's helped all of us raise our own level.”
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A smile on Hirscher's face as he completes his second run after five years away from skiing
Video credit: TNT Sports
By his own admission, Radamus knows that the men aren’t holding up their end of the bargain, with the women seeing four of the top 11 places in Solden. He admits that “I don't think that we've quite figured out why that has been”, but reiterates that “we're in a place to be able to make that leap in a real forceful way and put the rest of the nations on notice right now.”
He did have a breakthrough of his own last season, finishing on the podium at Palisades. It comes after nearly breaking through at the 2022 Beijing Olympics when he finished an agonising fourth.
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Gold medalists Tommy Ford, River Radamus, Paula Moltzan, Nina O'Brien, Katie Hensien and Luke Winters of United States pose for a photo during the victory ceremony for Mixed Team Parallel Slalom at the FIS Alpine World Ski Championships on February 14, 2023
Image credit: Getty Images
For many, that disappointment could have been the ruin of them, but Radamus tells an amusing story that happened during the games to help him keep perspective, especially when the people around him are telling him that he can be a World Cup race-winner.
“One thing that really stuck out to me is I came short at the Olympics in 2022 and I just sort of thought ‘Oh my God that was my opportunity and it'll never come again, my life would have completely changed’,
“And then, I won't say who, but I saw someone who had gotten an Olympic medal at those games and the next day they were standing at the buffet and complaining about ‘oh this salad's awful’ and ‘where'd all the bread go’ stuff like that.
“And I’m standing there like ‘you won an Olympic medal, your life has changed, why are you worried about that?' Hey, it’s the Olympics, you know? And that was a big moment for me because I just sort of realised no one result is going to change my life, you know, not one race will make me feel like the person I was meant to be. That only happens on the other 364 days of the year when I'm working towards the person I'm meant to be.”
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'The Italians go crazy!' - Brignone wins opening race at Solden and celebrates with chicken dance!
Video credit: TNT Sports
For O’Brien, her forced perspective came differently but in the same place. At Beijing, she put down a blistering first run in the giant slalom only to fall in the second, breaking her tibia fibula and talus in her left leg. Miraculously, she managed to get back to the start gate for the start of the following season.
However, during pre-season in September 2023, 18 months after the first break, she broke the same leg, ruling her out for all of last season. Her attitude to going through the rehab process all over again is remarkable.
“I think that was something that I kind of held on to throughout every stage of the rehab”, she says. “Whether it was, you know, waking up after surgery and how I felt that day or taking my first steps and then getting back on snow for the first time. I was kind of able to hold on to this whole mentality of, ‘Okay I've been through this once'.
“I knew I could get over it one time or at least I showed myself that I could go through it once. So then, taking a little bit of confidence doing it the second time for sure, felt easier.
“I think I rode that total emotional rollercoaster hard, initially when the injury happened it was like, 'Could this happen again, or why is this happening again?’ and feeling kind of like a nightmare having to relive it all.
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Gold medalists Tommy Ford, River Radamus, Paula Moltzan, Nina O'Brien, Katie Hensien and Luke Winters of United States pose for a photo during the medal ceremony for Mixed Team Parallel Slalom at the FIS Alpine World Ski Championships on February 15, 2023
Image credit: Getty Images
“But I think once I kind of lived and processed those emotions immediately after the second injury, then I was able I think take comfort in the fact that I had been through it as I was going through the rehab and then eventually getting back in the start gate.
“And I think as I approached this whole season, I mean, Solden was great and obviously I want to carry that momentum, but you never know what's going to happen and I'm sure there's going to be natural highs and lows throughout the season.
“So I just try and remind myself as I go through those that it is a comeback year and I have been through it and hopefully, I can take some of the lessons I learnt two years ago and just be patient with myself this year.”
Given the punishing conditions they compete under, skiers always seem to be wired differently, seem to have some kind of incredible mental fortitude built into them, but the US athletes are ultimately doing a different job compared to their European counterparts.
Watching an athlete like Shiffrin make it look so effortless, or even the returning Vonn, can sometimes mean that we forget what they and the rest of their team-mates are going through. When you listen to them talk, however, it’s absolutely impossible to ignore.
Stream the 2024-25 Alpine Skiing season live on Eurosport and discovery+
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