Stefan Luitz makes a comeback in Beaver Creek

The background is darkened; a man in a white T-shirt sits in the light and talks. The scenery seems unspectacular, but the man’s words have even more power in the light: what he says and how he says it. At times his voice falters, he has to take a deep breath several times, and in two places he fights back tears.

The ski racer Stefan Luitz disappeared from the scene for a long time. At the beginning of December he appeared in a moving short documentary about his career path, which could also be described as a sporting ordeal. Twelve years ago, the then 20-year-old from Allgäu was considered the greatest talent in German skiing, before his career became more and more a series of rehabilitation. Hardly any other active ski racer in the World Cup has had to cope with as many serious injuries and setbacks as Luitz, most recently he broke an ankle and tore his syndesmosis during training in October 2023. At the time, very few people would have believed that now, at 32, he would make his comeback again. Maybe one last time? At least on the slope in Colorado that once brought him his greatest success.

Recently, however, Luitz and the Ski World Cup were no longer best friends. The scene in December 2022 was almost cinematic when, after his ride in the giant slalom in Alta Badia, a steward tried to ask him out of the fenced-in area down in the finish area just because Luitz’s access card wasn’t dangling around his neck. But Luitz remained steadfast. As is often the case when others have given up.

The documentary by the production company Heimpel Media lasts just under nine minutes, and yet the recordings provide a good insight into an area of ​​sport that is difficult to fathom in the fast-paced everyday life of the professional scene: the role of the head, the psyche and the thoughts of athletes . The film is entitled “From setbacks back to the thrill”, but could also be called: The sport in the head.

December 2nd, 2018 was one of his “most formative days,” “which did an enormous amount to me mentally,” says Luitz

And it’s probably no coincidence that the film project was released just before the World Cup weekend in Beaver Creek. It was exactly here that Luitz raced to his first World Cup victory on December 2, 2018, ahead of the Austrian Marcel Hirscher and Thomas Tumler from Switzerland. At the time, many observers thought he would have a great skiing career, as he was only 26. But then things turned out completely differently.

Luitz says in the film that he remembers that December day almost exactly six years ago as “one of the most beautiful in my sporting career.” Nevertheless, it later became “one of my most formative days,” “which did an enormous amount to me mentally and also changed a lot.”

In fact, at this point, Luitz had only just recovered from his second cruciate ligament tear and completion seemed to be near, finally. Instead, the drama went to the next round: A supervisor from a competing team photographed Luitz inhaling artificial oxygen between runs – at an altitude of 3,000 meters. In the regulations of the World Ski Association (Fis) this is prohibited during the race. However, the DSV was based on the World Anti-Doping Agency’s rules, which allow its use. The Fis initially took the victory from Luitz, who had relied on the assessments of his superiors. The International Court of Arbitration for Sport later revised the ruling. Luitz retained his World Cup victory, but no one has ever had to fight for it as hard as he did.

That left its mark. From then on he “realized for the first time what the pressure in competitive sports can do to a person.” In his case back then, things took a turn for the worse. Suddenly there was hardly anything left of the fast-paced giant slalom specialist. The intuition for skis and snow gave way to uncertainty. “I was partially at the start and I didn’t even know how to get to the finish or where to start the turns,” reports Luitz. “It kind of felt like I had that “I’ve forgotten how to ski.” At the lowest point, the decision was made: “I’d rather hang up my skis.”