Teenage WAIS scholarship holder Greta Small triumphed over fields of high fliers to win the senior national slalom and giant slalom gold medals in Thredbo this month.
Add to that some junior national titles and at just 15, Small represents one of Australia’s most promising young winter sport athletes.
Born in Wangaratta, Victoria and raised in Albury, Small now calls the northern suburbs of Perth home. It is there that Small has the support of family and friends and attends Schools of Isolated and Distance Education (SIDE).
Her southern hemisphere training base is in Mount Hotham, Victoria, and her northern base is in Pitztal, Austria. The Austrian Rache Centre where Small trains is just an hour away from where she hopes to represent Australia and get her first taste of the Olympics next year.
From January 13-22, 2012 the world’s best young athletes aged 15-18 will descend on Innsbruck, Austria for the inaugural Winter Youth Olympic Games (WYOG).
Approximately 15 young Australians will compete across 11 winter disciplines alongside 1,100 other competitors. The event follows the roaring success of the 2010 Summer Youth Olympic Games in Singapore and the Australian Team will be led by Olympic gold medallist Alisa Camplin as Chef de Mission, and Vancouver Olympian Ramone Cooper as Team Mentor.
For Small, the prospect of representing Australia at the WYOG is the motivation she needs to push herself to new levels.
“At the top of my list of goals is going to the Youth Olympic Games,” Small said.
The youngster has the right skills to get her there and is showing maturity beyond her years. Her race tactics at the 2011 National Championships saw her explode with a blistering first ski slalom run on her way to a first gold.
“I was really shocked after the first run actually. So I raced conservatively in the second run because my focus was on winning gold.”
And that, Small emphatically did. Her determination and commitment to competing at the Winter Youth Olympic Games was equally as clear when Small spoke to Olympics.com.au.
“It would mean representing Australia- I would just be so stoked!” Small said. “It’s almost competing at my home away from home as well. I know all the locals there so it would be really, really cool.”
Is this a talent to watch for the future? You bet.
In “awful” conditions on her second run in the senior giant slalom event, Small kept fighting for gold until the end and won by a convincing 1.5 seconds.
“My coach, Alfons Schmidt, always says it’s very important to train in all conditions and we do,” Small said.
“Today it was all about good technical skiing, so by practicing in all types of weather it really makes you a better skier. On a day like today that really shows,” Small said.
The reality of her achievements over three days in Thredbo is yet to sink in, but Small has big dreams about her future in alpine skiing.
“My long term goals are going to the 2013 World Championships and Sochi 2014 is definitely one of my long term goals,” Small added.
Four-time Olympian Zali Steggall has long been Small’s inspiration. Steggall won Australia’s first individual Winter Olympic medal, winning bronze in the slalom event at the 1998 Nagano Games.
“Zali was really the last Olympian that was up there for the women. I really look up to her.”
Small was just three-years-old when Steggall won bronze, but no other Australian has won an alpine skiing Olympic medal since then. Perhaps she will be next.
When racing finishes in Thredbo this week, Small heads to Mt Hotham, Victoria for the Australia and New Zealand Cup before completing three weeks of racing in New Zealand. After a one week rest in Australia, Small will return to her European base to be close to Innsbruck in the build up to the inaugural Youth Olympics.
Taya Conomos
AOC
