Athlete profile: Karin Roten

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

Athlete notes

There is rarely a moment when you won't see Roten laughing or having fun...the youthful Roten is a bundle of energy and seems to have no problems transferring this energy to her skis...after the retirement of five-time Olympic medalist Vreni Schneider, Roten was tabbed as "the next Vreni" by the Swiss media...comparisons began when she won the silver medal in the giant slalom at the 1996 World Championships in Sierra Nevada, Spain...and Roten's go-get-em attitude is similar to that of the legendary Schneider, from whom Roten learned a lot in training a few years back...as the youngest member of the Swiss team in Lillehammer and a two-time world junior champion in the giant slalom, Roten had a lot to live up to in the years following her first Olympics..."I was really young at the Olympics and I was just lucky to qualify," says Roten. "Because of the whole atmosphere, my concentration definitely was not as good"...Roten still placed a respectable 16th at just 18 years of age and she has been on her way up ever since...in 1996, she won her first World Cup Events on the same slalom course she had competed on in Lillehammer two years earlier...that same year she also placed second at the Worlds...she proved that her 1996 results on the senior level were no fluke when she won another silver in the giant slalom and a bronze in the slalom at the 1997 World Championships in Sestriere, Italy..."I was really surprised with the slalom," says Roten. "I did not have a good year in slalom up to that point. And the giant slalom result was definitely great"...but according to the Swiss technical coach Roten is "equally talented in slalom and giant slalom," who especially excels on steep, icy courses...her past results leave Roten with an amazing statistic: in eight World Championship races, junior or senior, she has placed lower than third only one time...and that was an experiment in the Super G...no doubt, Roten is enjoying her time on the World Cup circuit...she openly admits that she "loves skiing!"...veteran teammate Martina Accola shares similar sentiments about Roten, "She's pretty young. She has a lot of fun skiing. [For her] it's just ‘Let's ski and see what happens'"...why shouldn't Roten enjoy herself; after all, it is what she has been doing since she was three years old...her parents run the Haus Sunnuhubil at the ski resort in Leukerbad and her father is a ski instructor...Karin is now coached by national team coach Thierry Meynet...Karin has three brothers -- two older and one younger -- and believes skiing with them conditioned her to ski forceful and direct..."She doesn't have to be taught to ski like the guys," says a Swiss coach. "Her brothers taught her already"...one of Karin's brother, Jörg, is on the Swiss C team..."Growing up in the mountains, among my three brothers against whom I constantly had to measure myself at home or on the ski slopes certainly explains my predisposition for skiing," she says. "I was lucky to make rapid progress from the beginning and to win competitions very early"...recently, Roten finished her studies in business administration and says she keeps in touch with things on the internet...Karin enjoys reading, cooking and shopping and says being on the road lends well to these activities...she is rumored to bring six books with her on trips, and when she comes to the United States she has no problem with America's retail offerings..."I love to shop in the U.S.," she says with a big laugh. "I do a lot of shopping"...Karin also is a big fan of the American ski resort of Vail...and she has fans herself...the "Karin Roten fan club" is over 400 members strong with "its own band, its own flags and banners and...three alphorns"...Karin does not speak much English, but laughing can be understood in all languages...