Interview with Vali Höll: The downhill world champion in transition

My first Interview with Valentina Höll took place in 2015. It was the premiere of the Glemmride Festival in her home town of Saalbach-Hinterglemm, co-organised by her mother Sabine. Vali was 13 years old. She came alone. Would her parents like to join her? She waved them off. They had better things to do.

World champion at last!

"YT Industries is bringing the 2022 downhill world champion onto the team," her sponsor at the time announced confidently. The bike industry grinned at the grandiloquence - but nobody wanted to bet against it either. Better that way! Eight years later, we all witnessed the announced triumph: from the 3:53 minutes in the dusty Les Getsher incredulous look at the finish line, the cheers of the crowds.

And then came Vali's contrasting programme again: first the winner's podium, then the loo. After the ceremony, the champagne shower and the normal shower, Vali spends the evening and night in the bathroom. It wasn't the alcohol that forced her in front of the bowl, but a stomach virus. Les Gets, the team, friends and family in a frenzy - and Vali in misery.

It is a picture that seems almost exemplary of Vali Höll's past two years, in which the highs and lows were so close together. Two years in which best times were followed by crashes. Two years in which she won the overall World Cup and World Championship gold - and two of the "unhappiest" years of her life, as she says. But the World Championships should mark a turning point. Vali is on the verge of change and upheaval.

Bad luck at the World Championships in Leogang 2020

Perhaps you have to go back to Vali's homeland to understand her triumphant and tumultuous years as a professional. Leogang 2020: Vali's first elite world championships (she is already double world junior champion), and on her home track. She is two seconds ahead of the competition in qualifying. On race day, she jumps the gap drop, but jumps too short, skids over the handlebars: broken ankle! Leogang 2021: Vali is more than three seconds ahead in the World Cup race. Crash shortly before the finish. She still finishes second. Leogang 2022: Second fastest in qualifying, in the race a slip after the start is followed by a somersault in the middle section - race ruined!

"Leogang broke me," she says today. We are sitting just a few kilometres from the bike park in her parents' house. "I always thought I wasn't very emotional, but I cried at the finish and couldn't stop. The last time I cried was ten years earlier at my grandma's funeral." Her home run broke her - but it also broke something open.

Parties have never interested me

"I've always been very structured, very organised. Everything was organised - at school, at training, with the sponsors," she reflects. "I always wanted to manage everything on my own, I never wanted anyone to help me. My parents only came into play when it came to signing. Maybe being a girl gives you an advantage over the boys in that respect, because you have a head start in terms of maturity." Going out? Parties? "That was so uninteresting. I drank alcohol for the first time when I was 16..."

It's not a lack of discipline that stood in her way in the races, and certainly not a lack of talent. It's her head. "I didn't want to disappoint anyone. I wanted to prove that I wasn't getting the hype for nothing and I had really high expectations of myself. And I tied them exclusively to results." Vali pauses and takes a breath. "I had the wrong idea about being a professional. Just looking at the result doesn't make you happy. And always thinking about getting knocked on my face doesn't either."

Rookie Vali gets to know the tough side of being an elite athlete. "How was I supposed to know how tough it was? Everyone always talks about winning. Nobody cares about the rest. Somehow I thought that once you win, you're on a high and then everything is easy. Cami (editor's note: Camille Balanche) is the kind of person who can make it work. She's got massive self-confidence. I always tell her to teach me how to do it. She just believes in herself. I'm different..."

Vali takes overall victory in the 2021 World Cup

Even with their Winning the overall World Cup 2021 the joy is limited. "It was madness, but I won the overall because another rider was unlucky. I hadn't thought about it for a second beforehand. That says something." Vali speaks clearly and analytically. And she speaks as if this Vali is now a thing of the past.

Vali Höll grows up

She got on her bike for the first time at the age of three, rode her first bike race at the age of six, signed a contract with YT at 13, won all the UCI Downhill World Cups at 16, but Vali didn't learn to clear her head until she was 20.

"Something is happening to me now. I'm just finding out what I actually enjoy in life."

Vali has just turned 21. "Something is happening to me now. I'm just finding out what I actually enjoy in life." She is moving to Innsbruck. Where her friends are, where there's always something going on. "Doing things with my friends is the most important thing for me at the moment. We go biking or skiing, but afterwards we also have an Aperol and go partying. I'm brutally grateful that I've found this environment. I'm changing as a person right now." It's obvious that she's in a good mood. She now knows what's important, she says: "Clear my head."

Friends are more important than a coach

I want to know whether she has ever tried a mental coach. "Yes, I have," says Vali, "but that didn't really work. What helped me a lot more was talking to other athletes." Downhill women are known for getting on well with each other. Is that really the case? Vali nods: "Absolutely. And that's really important for each of us. Not only because we talk so much, but also simply because we have so much fun together." She celebrated New Year's Eve with Nina Hoffmann, Veronika Widmann, Camille Balanche and Emilie Siegenthaler and has just been on a training camp in Mallorca with Nina, Veronika, Noga Korem and Monika Hrastnik.

But the big release came from within. "I cried for ten minutes in Leogang. People saw me as vulnerable for the first time. That was also somehow liberating." Leogang was followed by Lenzerheide. There she finished fifth - and celebrated. "It threw me in training and in the race, but I didn't care." It got late. At three o'clock in the morning, she was still sitting together with friends at "Deep Talk". For her, this marked a turning point in her career. That night, she decided to change her attitude - to biking and to life.

"I had a different mindset in Andorra and at the World Championships." She won both times: "I focussed on how I rode my bike, on the style, on having fun. And I went to the after-parties, even if there was a race the next weekend."

"I had the best off-season ever! I finally managed to switch my head off and have fun."

She is currently having the funniest off-season ever. Even though she was hit by the Epstein-Barr virus in October and was ill for months. "My body showed me that it wasn't as great as the last two years had been ... But at the moment I feel so, so good in my head."

What's next for racing?

And the worries she is currently experiencing are shared by the entire field of drivers. It is the uncertainties that the Marketing and broadcasting switch from Red Bull to Discovery brings with it. "We don't know what's coming at all. We don't know where the races will be held, we don't know what the race calendar will look like and we don't know whether there will be new race formats."

The rumour mill is churning. It is rumoured that the semi-finals and final will be held on the same day. "To race Val di Sole twice in a row, that would be crazy. And something like that is decided without ever asking the actual players." In 2022, the downhillers joined forces and founded the Pro Riders Association to have a common voice.

"We generally had a lot of dialogue, especially with Finn (Iles) and Loïc (Bruni), particularly on safety issues. We never had a chance to be heard. So we formed ourselves. Of course Warner Bros has more decision-making power than a Riders Union. But we are the athletes. We are the ones who give everything and risk a lot," says Vali.

Vali says what she thinks

Vali's process of growing up is also reflected in her clear expression of opinion. Her biggest role model is probably Cécile Ravanel. Cécile raced EWS races, XC and DH World Cups; she has been training Vali since 2020. "Cécile is the best thing that could have happened to me. I trust her completely. Not only because she knows exactly what's going on as a biker, but also because she's mega straight. She says exactly what she thinks."

After a pause, Vali adds: "And Cécile was also the one who encouraged me to go for coffee with the other riders. That wasn't the case before. I tend to be introverted and withdraw, but she got me to open up. Now, socialising with the others is really important to me. They are all so cool and we can talk about problems. They know exactly how things feel." One of her closest friends, however, is Swiss ski slopestyler Mathilde Gremaud. "Mathilde mirrored what was going on inside me. She's an Olympic champion, she's the coolest sock, but she also doubts herself."

Vali Höll in transition

Vali is undergoing a process of change, and no one knows this better than she does. "For me, I'm still a rookie, but I realise that I'm growing up." She also realises this by looking more at herself and less at others. And the fact that she is now a role model herself - especially for girls, "because the boys have enough role models anyway." She says this despite the fact that over 80 per cent of her approximately 150,000 Instagram followers are male.

The first "Vali Höll Performance Camp" took place in 2022 with six young female racers. "In skateboarding, in slopestyle, in biking - it's amazing what's going on right now, how many role models there are and what's coming next. The girls have something to look up to and I really celebrate that." Something is also happening in the MTB racing formats. There are now separate boys' and girls' categories in the iXS Rookie Cup. "In general, girls have the opportunity to prove themselves in more races. Rosa Zierl, Lina Frener - there are super-fast riders coming and it's going to be really cool."

"I don't just want to be fast. I want to be fast and stylish at the same time. Just a cool sock."

Vali ponders a little. Perhaps, she says, the younger generation inspires her just as much in return. "The next generation is all about riding with more style. And I want that too. I don't just want to be fast. I want to be fast and stylish at the same time. Just a cool sock. Knowing what you're doing in the air, whipping, playing and having fun. I think now it's more about leaving a footprint as a character - and not as a rider who has won this and that."

Leogang 2023: What can we expect, Vali Höll? "Of course it's going to open," she says and laughs. "Oh, I have no idea. You know, there's a reason for everything. I'm a big believer in karma. So at some point..."

Speed interview: 23 questions for Vali Höll

1. Your greatest test of courage? Abitur examination in apparatus gymnastics.
2. What can't you do? Making music.
3. Where do you get stuck when you flick through the TV programme? Otter videos on TikTok.
4. Which athlete impresses you? Mikaela Shiffrin (Ski). What are you
5. Nightmares? That I miss the start of the race.
6. Favourite film? Star Wars.
7. What is a challenge for you? Not to be too hard on myself.
8. Best sport besides biking? Freeride skiing.
9. Which habit should you start with? Selfcare.
10. Which habit should you stop? TikTok videos.
11. Which phrase do you use too often? F**k.
12. If you could travel back in time, which era would you choose? Downhill skiing in the 1990s.
13. Last pleasure purchase? New ski outfit.
14. What tempts you? Gelato.
15. Your favourite motto? It is what it is!
16. Who would you swap places with for a month? Anna Gasser (snowboard).
17. What do you want to be reborn as? As a panda or otter, just chill out.
18. What do hardly anyone know about you? That I have two citizenships: AUT and DE.
19. What makes you aggressive? When I'm not taken seriously as a young woman.
20. What makes you angry? Last-minute planning.
21. Where would you like to have a second home? France or Portugal.
22. What can you learn from Rachel Atherton? Comebacks from injuries.
23. What's the best way to relax? When listening to music.