"Boarder king" Karl

“Now the pressure is off”

Benjamin Karl finally holds his fourth big globe in his hands.

(Bild: GEPA pictures/ Patrick Steiner)

He narrowly missed out on the knockout round at the final of the Alpine Boarder World Cup, but Benjamin Karl had already bagged his fourth big crystal globe beforehand anyway. Now he was presented with it. And spoke to the "Krone" about emotions, records, fragility and gruelling things.

Nine days after you were crowned overall winner of the Snowboard World Cup, you finally got the big globe at the final in Winterberg - is the feeling really different now?

It really is! The pressure is off now. The emotions are somehow not there like when you win the World Cup, because the success happens over the whole season. Basically, it's the accumulated emotions over the season, and there were a lot of nice moments this year.

What were the best?

I was very happy about the victories in Cortina and Rogla - those are slopes where I usually find it more difficult.

In a year without the Olympics and World Championships, the big ball was the most important thing, you got it - how can you always deliver on time like that?

With a lot of preparation, extreme dedication, focus - in every respect. You have to learn something new every day. Listen, your mother always said. I did that at some point (laughs).

You won three times in the parallel giant slalom this year, taking the small globe, but you didn't manage a podium in the parallel slalom - anyone who knows you knows that this kind of thing upsets you...

That bothers me, especially because we are very close. I messed up a few times myself. But the goal for next year is definitely to improve in the slalom and get stronger. We're already making plans for that. We're already very close to winning the slalom anyway.

We, that's you and your board manufacturer Virus?

Yes, exactly.

Benjamin Karl's preparation in his own gym

(Bild: ZVG)

With four overall World Cups, you're level with Canadian Jay Jay Anderson at the top. Are you on a par with Lewis Hamilton in Formula 1 and want the sole record?

Of course that's always the goal! In my advanced career, it's all about breaking records!

Matthieu Bozzetto is number 1 in individual wins with 35, you have 22-is that a goal or do you take that with you?

A few years ago, I would have said that's impossible to break, but now it looks like it is.

You have two children, where do you hide all the fragile glass balls?

The girls aren't so little anymore that they don't know they can't attack it. We've been putting them to the test over the last few days anyway and kept the little crystal ball on the kitchen table the whole time.

The 2026 Olympics in Cortina are not far away, 2027 is the home World Championships in Montafon - you actually have to keep going...

I haven't had to carry on for a long time. But I like doing it because it's nice. When you realize you're in line, it wears you down. That's what haunted me for a few years before the Olympic victory in Beijing - racing along and not building up a lead. But now that we're the spearhead and the others are watching how we do it, it's nice.

The season is not quite over yet. Next week is the European Cup in St. Moritz, where the World Championships will be held in 2025...

Yes, that will be the dress rehearsal, I'm still doing the two races.