Athlete profile: Stefan Eberharter

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

Athlete notes

Eberharter is an athlete who was willing to start all over again for the sport he loves so much, and he has no problem admitting it..."Skiing is my job. I live for my job"...while Jerry Rice was immediately welcomed back to the San Francisco 49ers following a serious knee injury, Eberharter had to battle his way through unglamorous, lower-level events just to make it back to World Cup skiing this past year..."I was down at the bottom," says Eberharter. "I like to call it the ‘bottom of the valley.' I saw in the Europa Cup an opportunity to make it back"...after tearing a ligament in his left knee in a nasty 1993 downhill crash in Val Gardena, Italy -- which forced him to miss the 1994 Winter Games -- Eberharter has spent the past few years on the comeback trail..."During Lillehammer, my first thought was just to become healthy again after my injury," says Eberharter. "I wanted to give it my best try"...following two years of lonely rehabilitation, Eberharter was given a chance by the Austrian ski team to prove himself on the Europa Cup circuit (a level below World Cup)..."If you are injured, you don't get any support from the team," he says. "Yeah really, you want to start with the recovery on your own so you can quickly become your best"...Eberharter spent most of his time doing strength training and cycling -- something he enjoys very much...but this is a man who has had a rough time with injuries throughout his career...he is only now beginning to find the same comfort zone he had in 1991 when he was the year-end World Cup Super G champion and a double World Champion in both the combined and the Super G...the next winter in his 1992 Olympic debut, he fell in the combined race and then injured himself in training for the super G and could not start...the following autumn he broke his collarbone in a motorcyle accident and missed six weeks of training..."I was just going too fast," he says of the accident. "I was going [30 mph] around a big curve and lost control"...shortly after his crash he went out and bought a Harley-Davidson...now the bike sits lonely in the garage, waiting to be sold as Eberharter has taken up a new and less dangerous hobby -- golf..."It was just a quick idea I had," he says of the spontaneous Harley purchase...having played golf for one year, Eberharter has already tested his skills on some of the world's toughest courses in Naples and Key West, Florida, where he went after the 1996-97 season...maybe a little golf relaxation is all Eberharter needed...several years after problems with his shoulder and the 1993 crash, Eberharter won last year's Europa Cup circuit: Eberharter was ready to test himself again on the World Cup circuit...and to his satisfaction he has recorded excellent results this winter -- a third in the Beaver Creek downhill, a second in the super G and a second in the giant slalom in Val d'Isere..."I feel good in GS and Super G," he says. "It is not easy in the downhill after you have had an injury like mine"...Eberharter's drive to ski again has kept him going..."I missed some good years with my injuries," he says. "Right now I'm pretty strong"...he'll need all the strength he can muster with qualification for the Austrian Olympic team being the toughest in the world..."I don't want to talk about qualifying for the Olympics. That's a horror for us," he says. "In Austria, you have to qualify in training runs for World Cup in October. That's pretty tough, you know. In America, I don't know how many places they have, but they are not under pressure. We are always under pressure. It's pretty tough to ski on the Austrian team, but we win"...Eberharter was first discovered by Tyrolean ski coaches at age eight...like many of his teammates, he later attended the famous Stams Ski Academy outside of Innsbruck...Eberharter's father is a carpenter and swimming instructor...Stefan enjoys playing the accordion, which he began about seven years ago with the help of a musician from Stumm...Eberharter learned to play without reading notes, often bringing the accordion with him on the road...he speaks good English...