Flagbearer Simon Kammerlander of Bolivia leads out his country during the opening ceremony of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games in Beijing, China, February 4, 2022. /CFP
"When I wake up, I turn on the music. When I do stretches, I turn on the music. When I go to sleep, I turn on the music," Simon Kammerlander said softly in a conversation that is very different from the deafening roar he let out on the treacherous course at the National Alpine Skiing Center in Yanqing.
The Bolivian alpine skier might be the poster boy for his country's Winter Olympic ambitions, but he knows how to take his foot off the pedal when there is too much pressure. "I really love music, and I just need to listen to it to relax and blow off steam," he mused.
The 29-year-old is no stranger to scrutiny. He had been selected as Bolivia's flagbearer for the opening ceremony of two consecutive Winter Olympics, and he was aware that every Bolivian eye was on him.
Flagbearer Simon Kammerlander of Bolivia leads out his country during the opening ceremony of the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympic Games in PyeongChang, South Korea, February 9, 2018. /CFP
"It's a tremendous honor," beamed Kammerlander. "I'm extremely happy to represent Bolivia at the PyeongChang Games four years ago and right now I'm also super proud to carry our tricolor flag at the Bird's Nest stadium in Beijing."
As one of only two Bolivian Olympians at the Beijing Games, Kammerlander admitted that though he enjoys privileged status, he sometime feels like he is carrying the weight of the entire nation on his shoulders.
"We just have two athletes in our small delegation, and my teammate is a cross country skier," he said. "Back home, many many people are cheering me on because they have great expectations of me and inevitably it makes me feel stressed and anxious...It's not easy to compete at the biggest sporting events in the world but every athlete is required to perform under pressure and I just focus on what I can do."
Courtesy of Simon Kammerlander
For Kammerlander, one of the rare skiers from a tropical country, coming out on top in the Winter Olympic race is a daunting task, and it's more than just coping with extreme cold.
Bolivia's year-round balmy climate is not helpful for skiing, so normally he would find a more suitable place to train and spend the vast majority of his time in a foreign country, far away from home. But the COVID-19 pandemic brought global travel to a standstill and scuppered his preparations in the run-up to the Olympics.
"Everybody is talking about winning a medal at Olympics and Beijing has brilliant slopes and skiing facilities, which creates excellent conditions for athletes to achieve good results," he observed. "But personally speaking, it's been a long road to this year's Games, and the competition is as fierce as ever,"
"I have been severely lacking in training for the past two years due to the pandemic, so even before the race started, I knew there's a very slim chance that I could get on that podium," he added.
Simon Kammerlander of Bolivia skis during a men's downhill training run at Beijing 2022 in Yanqing, Beijing, China, February 3, 2022. /CFP
Kammerlander did end up having mixed results at this Olympics. He failed to complete the super-G after missing gates, but managed a 34th-place finish in the downhill. It is tempting to keep thinking about what could have been, but Kammerlander is looking at the big picture.
"I just want to use my power to promote the winter sport and contribute to the development of skiing in Bolivia. And that's what motivates me to keep going," he opined.
"From the Olympic Committee to the Ministry of Sports, everybody in Bolivia is working in the same direction. So I'm convinced that we will have a brighter future."
(Reporting from the Yanqing competition zone)