Athlete profile: Brigitte Albrecht

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

Athlete notes

Albrecht wakes up every morning near the shadows of the famed Matterhorn mountain in the region of the Zermatt ski area...after that it's just a short commute...when she's apart from the national team, Albrecht travels only 15 minutes away to train with former Swiss Olympian Hanz Kreuzer (HAHNS KROY-tser)...but she seems to prefer the lonely training with lifelong coach and mentor, Kreuzer..."He [Kreuzer] is my model and the one I pattern my skiing after," says Albrecht. "We have spent a lot of time this summer working on my weaknesses like upper-body strength and technique"...Kreuzer was the one who originally lured Brigitte into the sport, and he has remained her faithful coach, or "Lehrmeister" (teaching master), since she strapped on skis at age five...but Kreuzer also told her education came first and Brigitte did not hit the competitive world scene until age 18 after finishing school...it took her a few years to catch up from her late start, but her hard work since then has placed her in the top 20 in numerous world class events...in Albertville she finished 17th in the 30km freestyle and 20th in the 5km classical, but fared poorly in Lillehammer placing 37th and 38th...as a product of her surroundings, Brigitte finds herself enjoying mountain living...though not top level competitors, all six of her three brothers and three sisters do some thing mountain oriented, whether as hiking guides or alpine ski teachers...she notes the amount of other mountain sports she did this summer to improve her strength: climbing, mountain running and tennis...Albrecht lives with her mom (her dad is deceased) and doesn't see herself moving to a metropolis any time soon..."I am used to dealing with small circles of people and friends," she says. "I enjoy that. I have fun visiting a city, but I would never want to live in one and I do not like city-life"...maybe it's the music...Brigitte loves to listen to all types of music, but specifically detests hard rock and techno - the kind often heard around urban discos...so don't play any Bush or Wallflowers around her...but similar to those bands, Brigitte is still up and coming...she had two top-15 finishes at the 1997 World Championships in Trondheim: 14th in the 15km and 15th in the 10km...and perhaps most important, she had her two best World Cup results of the year in...guess where?...Nagano, where she placed 4th and 6th... she credited her excellent results to good preparation...so look out for her, she is gearing up for the Olympics and she seems to like the Nagano course...Brigitte does not speak English...