Athlete profile: Christian Rijavec

Posted: Tue February 3, 1998 at 5:00 PM ET

Athlete notes

For a high flyer, things could not get any lower for Rijavec as he prepares for his eighth winter of competition...after a disastrous 1997 season when everything that could possibly go wrong went wrong, the furthest thing from Rijavec's mind is an Olympic medal..."Right now, it is all about my rehabilitation," said Rijavec at the beginning of the World Cup season. "To win a medal at the Olympics is very far away in my head"...Rijavec remains philosophical about his misfortunes..."The sEventsh day should be a day of rest, or so the saying goes," smiles Rijavec. "For me, I should have listened and taken my sEventsh-year off. It was the worst year for me"...Rijavec's string of bad luck reads like a poorly-written script in a sports movie...at a World Cup last year in Breckenridge, Colorado, Rijavec landed on his head and broke his sternum in a mean-looking fall...he bounced back, only to have the exact same accident occur in a training jump the day before the 1997 World Championships...courageously, he would go on to compete in Iizuna Kogen and place a respectable fifth under a lot of pain..."I had to get back into it and jump right away," says Rijavec of the injury before Worlds. "It's like getting back on your bike, if I had not done it then, I might never have jumped again"...then a few weeks later at a World Cup Events in Kirchberg, Austria, Rijavec was a little short on the landing and hit his face on the ground...he did not think much of it until the next morning..."I woke up and looked in the mirror and was like, ‘Hello, I look like I was just in a fight'"...Rijavec had broken his nose the day before and never even realized it...next came the Altenberg, Germany Events, where Rijavec received word that his mother's husband -- his step-dad -- had just passed away..."I couldn't compete after that," says Rijavec...at the final stop of the winter, Rijavec put everything behind him and won the aerials Events in Hundfjället, Sweden...but that was not the end to the bad luck...in the last week in March, a good friend of Rijavec's, Thomas Überall, invited him to take part in an exhibition -- an "air-bag" show..."I had been on this jump a million times," says Rijavec. "I know it backwards and forwards. I am absolutely confident on it, unfortunately something went wrong"... Rijavec had a poor landing that day and tore ligaments in his left knee...all these injuries, especially the last one, made summer training an afterthought and kept Rijavec off of the water jumps until earlier this winter..."With three hours of rehab a day, plus the full hour it takes me to get to my therapy and back, half of my day is already gone," laments Rijavec, who would rather be training. "I have done a lot of trampoline, but I haven't been able to learn any new jumps. I'll have to use the ones from last year"...he only returned to full jumping practice just over two months before Nagano...despite the problems, Rijavec remains upbeat..."The only reason I am positive going into the 1997-98 season is that I know it can only get better from here," he says. "I'm at the total bottom"...aside from his theory, Rijavec is also very talented...before last year, he finished in the top five of the World Cup standings three years running and he placed second to now-retired American Trace Worthington at the 1995 World Championships in La Clusaz, France...outside of aerials, Rijavec continues to pursue his other love as well -- music...he plays the electric piano and synthesizer and has cut two albums since the 1994 Olympics -- one called "Freestyle," the other called "Part of my Destiny"..."I thought I would have more time to do music," says Rijavec, "but I haven't. Only if I do well in aerials do people want to hear my music. They sort of go together"...Christian inherited his musical talent -- though not his athletic ability -- from his father Dieter, a Vienna-based nightclub musician who plays guitar..."I will just disappear for two weeks, go in the studio and make 10 songs," he says. "I use the synthesizer and I play all the instruments and make all the tracks myself"...his favorite artists are Phil Collins and Elton John...at age 15, Rijavec was introduced to the sport of aerials by Austrian freestyler Dr. Hugo Bonatti, the doctor of the freestyle circuit, who finished sixth at the Albertville Olympics when aerials was a demonstration sport...freestyle added focus to Rijavec's life..."Before freestyle I did everything and nothing," he says. "I never concentrated on any one sport"...now Rijavec has one thing to concentrate on -- being ready for the Olympics..."My knee is fine now," says Rijavec. "It's just in my head of whether or not I believe I can do it. I'm used to small injuries, but this one is different. I need to work that through myself"...only time will tell...he is an only child and speaks good English...