Athlete profile: Martina Accola

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

Athlete notes

The younger sister of 1991-92 World Cup overall titlist Paul Accola, Martina has overcome a series of injuries to develop into a top slalom specialist...once a promising gate skier, she considered ending her ski career 10 years ago after tearing knee ligaments in her right knee training giant slalom...she missed the next two seasons as she considered her future -- she worked in a bank in her hometown of Davos -- and rehabilitated..."I knew that I needed to ski," says Accola in deciding to make a comeback...she went to California in the spring of '91 to compete outside of the pressure cooker of Europe..."I thought that I have to start again," says Accola. "It's good I came to California, but I thought everybody is talking too fast"...she began competing in her first World Cups the same year that Paul won the overall title...Martina, though, was languishing on the Swiss "C" team and the pressure of sharing the Accola name did not make matters any easier...when asked about the pressure of being known as Paul's sister, Martina replies, "That's a good question. It helped and it was another pressure too. I wanted to do as well as Paul and others said, ‘You are his sister. You should be doing as good (as he).' It was hard sometimes"...in the shadow of not only her brother, but also Swiss female stars Vreni Schneider and Heidi Zurbriggen, Martina's focus on the slalom allowed her to move slowly up the discipline's ranks...she qualifed for Lillehammer and finished 17th in the slalom..."It's of course better if there are two disciplines, it is more interesting," admits Accola. "But if it doesn't work, it doesn't work"...her most consistent season came two years ago, when though she did not reach a podium, she placed sEventsh in the World Cup slalom rankings...she placed 11th at the '96 Worlds in Sierra Nevada, Spain...Accola did reach a podium last year, finishing third at Laax, but was bothered throughout the season by a disc problem in her back...she blames the back injury on her subpar 19th place at last year's Worlds in Sestriere, Italy..."I have had that disc problem from June '96," explains Accola. "(At Sestriere) I was sure that I'm not 100 percent healthy. I was also afraid of hurting my back more. I prefer to ski also after my ski career"...while her injury has not completely subsided, Accola does not expect it to hamper her at the Olympics..."Sometimes I have pain but this year is better than last year," she says. "I listen to my body very well"...always ready for a challenge, Accola is more worried about improving enough to contend with the world's top slalom skiers once again..."My technique is very good but I should be faster," she says. "I like best the very difficult hills, if it's very hard. I like it too the flat parts"...Accola first skied when she was hardly two years old..."I lived next to the T-bar," she says. "It was the only thing to do in winter time"...other than Paul, Accola has two other brothers, one older than Paul, the other younger than her...their father was a ski teacher but the family also had a dairy farm with 20 cows..."Everybody in the family helped on the farm," says Martina. "I liked milking cows. There was one I preferred, named Bettina"...she now lives just a few yards from her parents' farm and maintains a garden..."I like to plant vegetables and strawberries," says Accola...she first joined the Swiss national team at the age of 16...Accola speaks some English...