FIS Hatches And Matches

Every year there are new additions into the FIS family; although it was already talked about last season, alpine skiing fans will be delighted  to hear there is, once again, more news to share about our athletes’ lives. 

Watching them ski at 140km/h down the slopes or fight for 0,1 cent of a second to win a race or gain positions may make it easy to forget that athletes are human and not superheros.

Precisely because they are humans, they fall in love, they create projects together with their loved ones, they become parents, and they face all the joys and problems that having a family entails. 

While they all know very well the adrenaline on the starting gate, they will also discover or they may have just discovered the adrenaline of the words, “Yes, I do,” or the very first cry of a newborn baby. 

• The super woman Olympic Gold medalist Julia Mancuso, who retired two seasons ago, recently welcomed her little Sunny to the world. Her pregnancy seemed like the adventure of a classic “super mum,” skiing, skateboarding and surfing thoughout the entire 9 months as if she had never been pregnant.
• Nadia Fanchini surprised everybody with the fantastic news of her pregnancy and the temporary suspension of her skiing career. 
• Meanwhile, in the land of Austria and Tirol, the Raich and Fill families are getting bigger-- with their newborn arrivals. Additionally, after a long and busy season, Hannes Raichelt and Larissa Hofer are finally able to spend some time together as a family with their little Niklas. 
• Manuel Feller also announced his new status as “dad-to-be”.

A few weddings among FIS alpine athletes were celebrated this summer.

• Alice McKennis decided to have an American-style bachelorette party with her favourite squad, later tying the knot with her husband Patrick Duran.
• At the beginning of June, Reto Schmidiger introduced Annina as ‘Annina Schmidiger’ to the ski world and Christina Geiger becomes Mrs. Ackermann. 
• Still talking about weddings,on the other side of the ocean, Dustin Cook and Abby Ghent decided to become an official ski family under the same name. 

So, welcome to the family, everyone!