{"id":3521,"date":"2020-11-03T08:32:53","date_gmt":"2020-11-03T07:32:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saas-fee.ch\/blog\/?p=3521"},"modified":"2023-10-22T14:21:45","modified_gmt":"2023-10-22T12:21:45","slug":"the-warrior-and-her-dream","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saas-fee.ch\/blog\/2020\/11\/the-warrior-and-her-dream\/","title":{"rendered":"The warrior and her dream"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Her countrymen may number 82 million, but as a ski racer, training on the glacier pistes of Saas-Fee, \u00d6zlem Carikcioglu is a curiosity. However, she doesn\u2019t let that get in her way.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s spring in Istanbul, but no ordinary one. The markets are empty and nearly all of the shops are closed. This bustling metropolis of over 15 million people is only just beginning to return to normal. The COVID-19 pandemic hit Istanbul later than Central Europe, but it hit hard. \u201cIt was pretty crazy here for a while,\u201d says \u00d6zlem Carikcioglu. She is sitting in the living room of her grandmother’s house, just outside Istanbul. Outside, in the garden, she can keep up her fitness programme despite the lockdown restrictions. \u201cI need to stay fit for the ski season,\u201d the 26-year-old tells me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00d6zlem\u2019s homeland has a population of 82 million. But in Turkey, where the Bosphorus splits Europe and Asia, very few are interested in snowsports. The country, which is a popular beach destination for central Europeans, does have ski resorts. One such resort is Uludag, four hours\u2019 drive from Istanbul, where \u00d6zlem put on skis for the very first time. That was the day her great passion for skiing was born.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Olympic champion and curiosity<\/strong>
It\u2019s autumn in Saas-Fee. The larch trees surrounding the village are slowly turning orange. The first dustings of snow are now reaching the valley floor. Yet there is always a piece of winter at 3,500 m, where the village\u2019s glacier pistes are found. From July, you\u2019ll find many of the world’s leading snowsports athletes preparing forwinter here. Canadians set up their slalom poles next to the Swiss giant slalom gates. Americans and Australians tear down the ski cross course. Swedes and Norwegians perfect their tricks on the kickers and rails of the snow park. For close to four months a year, Saas-Fee becomes something like an \u2018Olympic village\u2019 for the snowsports world\u2019s top athletes. A few statistics demonstrate this emphatically: over 80 teams use the slopes on the Fee Glacier for their training, sometimes all at once. From both the dominant ski nations and the upstart challengers, everyone from rising stars to current Olympic champions is here. 41 medallists from the 2018 games in South Korea used Saas-Fee as part of their preparations for the big show.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEverything is a little different in Turkey, a bit more difficult than elsewhere.\u201d She is talking about working with the national ski association. She can only dream of professional training coming from what is a small ski nation.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\u00d6zlem was right there in the middle of it all. Since her first days of skiing on the sticky snow of Uludag, her progression has been impressive. It was clear from the start that she had talent. She quickly made it on to the junior national team in her homeland. \u201cBut,\u201d she says, \u201ceverything is a little different in Turkey, a bit more difficult than elsewhere.\u201d She is talking about working with the national ski association. She can only dream of professional training coming from what is a small ski nation. \u201cOf course, there have been many suggestions of how to improve things, but they mostly fall on deaf ears,\u201d she tells me. There are few slopes in the country suitable for race training, and to get to them requires a domestic flight<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A one-woman show in South Korea<\/strong>
It is winter in South Korea. Temperatures are in the negative double digits, making breathing difficult. \u00d6zlem is smiling, however. She has actually made it to the Olympic Village. She is representing Turkey at the 2018 Winter Olympics alongside one other ski racer, three cross-country skiers, a ski jumper and two figure skaters. 8 athletes to represent a population of 82 million. \u00d6zlem didn\u2019t have much time to prepare for the high point of her career. \u201cI only found out ten days before the games started that I had been selected\u2026 via Instagram,\u201d she tells me. The Turkish ski association only provided one trainer for both racers and \u00d6zlem had to prepare her skis for the rock-hard artificial snow slopes herself. Her Olympic adventure was more or less a one-woman show. Before the first of her two races, her nervousness was off the scale. Nevertheless, \u00d6zlem made it to the finish on both her giant slalom runs, placing 57th, 33 seconds behind winner Mikaela Schiffrin. \u201cI was overjoyed just to have made it to the finish line,\u201d says \u00d6zlem. After the race, a huge weight fell from her shoulders, but the pressure had already taken its toll. She struggled with a gastrointestinal illness for days afterwards. \u201cThe doctor said it was stress,\u201d she recalls. Her body weakened, she crashed out on the first run of the slalom, but she still looks back at the games fondly. \u201cThe Olympics were a wonderful experience,\u201d she tells me, \u201cbut I enjoyed the ceremonies much more than the races.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A return to Saas-Fee as a coach<\/strong>
It’s summer on the Fee Glacier. \u00d6zlem may have a degree in industrial engineering, but so far, she has only managed to endure short stints of office life. \u201cI can’t sit still,\u201d she tells me. She prefers to pass on her experience as a ski racer to young athletes from her homeland, whom she coaches in Saas-Fee. Much of her knowledge comes from David Prades, the Spanish director of Ski Zenit, a ski school that has made a name for itself running race camps in Saas-Fee. Within this community, \u00d6zlem is far from the only skier to come from somewhere unusual. \u201cWe coach athletes from all over the world, from China to Iran and America,\u201d says David. \u00d6zlem trained with David for the first time in 2013. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t just that he helped me improve my ski technique, though of course, he did. He\u2019s also a really nice guy, we\u2019re good friends now,\u201d she says. David finds \u00d6zlem similarly impressive: \u201cWhen you consider how little support she received from her national association, \u00d6zlem’s journey has been amazing. She\u2019s very committed and truly loves her sport.\u201d David hopes that \u00d6zlem will soon join Ski Zenit as a coach. \u201cIt\u2019s obvious that she loves Saas-Fee and would be a great fit for Ski Zenit. I\u2019d love to have her on the team.\u201d And it is true, the Turkish ski racer really does love Saas-Fee. She is obviously enthusiastic when she talks about the Elektros (small electric vehicles used to transport guests). “It seems like they really care about nature here,” she says. \u201cAnd you never get bored during training camps in the glacier village,\u201d she continues, \u201cthere’s always something new to discover.\u201d She remembers the Mittaghorn via ferrata especially fondly: \u201cBy the end of the day, I was pretty exhausted. But it was beautiful.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
David Prades is the director of Ski Zenit, a ski school that has made a name for itself running race camps in Saas-Fee. Within this community, \u00d6zlem is far from the only skier to come from somewhere unusual. \u201cWe coach athletes from all over the world from China to Iran and America,\u201d says David.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u00d6zlem still has goals as a ski racer too. Her number one goal is to make it to the Winter Olympics again, which are due to be held in China in 2022. \u201cThere are 82 million people in Turkey,\u201d she says, \u201crepresenting my country as the best athlete in my sport gives me all the motivation I need.\u201d The warrior keeps on dreaming.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Her countrymen may number 82 million, but as a ski racer, training on the glacier pistes of Saas-Fee, \u00d6zlem Carikcioglu is a curiosity. However, she doesn\u2019t let that get in her way. It\u2019s spring in Istanbul, but no ordinary one. The markets are empty and nearly all of the shops are closed. This bustling metropolis […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":3516,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[288,119],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3521","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-english","category-people"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saas-fee.ch\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3521","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saas-fee.ch\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saas-fee.ch\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saas-fee.ch\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saas-fee.ch\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3521"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.saas-fee.ch\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3521\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3524,"href":"https:\/\/www.saas-fee.ch\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3521\/revisions\/3524"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saas-fee.ch\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3516"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saas-fee.ch\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3521"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saas-fee.ch\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3521"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saas-fee.ch\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3521"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}