About haymaking and skiing.

Johannes Strolz: more than "just" an Olympic champion for Warth-Schröcken.

Olympic champion. An incredible title that Johannes Strolz has held since 2022. Olympic Champion Beijing Alpine Combined. Olympic champion Beijing team competition. Silver medal Beijing Slalom. Unbelievable. But is that all? No - this title alone does not do Johannes justice. So much is still forgotten. Fireman. Policeman. Mountain farmer. Big brother, ... And all that at once.

Hearsay.

Summer 2024 - we know Johannes is at home in Warth for a while. We see him driving past from time to time. Usually with agricultural equipment. As office neighbours, we receive one or two stories from his sister Anna-Maria. The topic of building a house comes up - and with it the names Johannes and Hubert, who actively supported her. A commute between Anna-Maria's building site and her own (farm) work. Carpentry, concreting, bricklaying.

A few days later, a photo: nothing out of the ordinary. A fireman with a fire hose in his hand. Our work colleague tells us that the Warth volunteer fire brigade has grown. Always good news in such a small mountain village. ‘Who is it?’ Johannes. A dream he's probably had for some time. With the awareness of being on the road a lot, but so far unfulfilled. But his concerns about the Warth fire brigade have been resolved. A new member.

It's the middle/end of June. Hubert drops by our office briefly. A little chat, the height of summer is approaching. And with it a lot of work for the Strolz family of mountain farmers. It's easy to imagine that they are happy for any helping hand in summer. Including Johannes'. Hay work is coordinated and as much as possible is done while Johannes is at home. ‘Doh geit eppas, doh isch Pfus dahintr.’ (dialect for: something goes quickly, is done quickly)

In between shifts at the police station, police duties, stable duties and not to forget Training sessions!

First hand.

Winter 2023/24 - a shoot was planned. Of course, a date during the season was not possible. So we let the season pass by and suddenly we got a call: Johannes was coming to Warth for a short break at the end of April. At this point, our winter season was already over, but as is the case with us in spring, we still had enough snow to send the rollers out again. Slopes prepared, Ski-Doos organised, we were ready to go. And no break for him again.

That's why we wanted to organise it as quickly and easily as possible. Our plan was to organise and set up the slalom poles in advance. But we had made the plan without Hubert and Johannes. With the wording

‘Des geit scho’
(dialect for: that's all right)

and the drill in their rucksacks, they quickly stuck the poles themselves. (After helping the municipal workers to free the Ski-Doo stuck in the deep snow). Not to mention the uncomplicated shoots.

Summer 2024 - a short video shoot about her haymaking was planned. Between helping out with other farmers, online appointments and the upcoming snow training in Chile, we managed to find a date. When we arrived on site, the family was already in full swing. With a lot of respect for this hard work on the steep mountain slopes, we were allowed to accompany them. We knew that Johannes was flying to Chile tomorrow. But we only found out during a short breather:

It starts as early as 02:30. Nevertheless, we felt nothing but deep relaxation with Johannes. At 16:30, the work was drawing to a close. From a brief conversation between Hubert and Johannes, we could hear that one corner wasn't quite finished yet. Hubert wanted to do this alone tomorrow so that Johannes could make his way home and prepare for his departure. He had to leave soon. But

„Des geit scho“.

We don't know which title would do Johannes justice.
However, he is so much more than an Olympic champion for our village.

Want to find out more about his Olympic story?
Find out why he himself was amazed, what Michael Matt had to say about his performance and when the men's slalom team can really party in an episode of the podcast ‘Wos dahinter steckt’ by Nici Schmidhofer and Conny Hütter.

About Johannes Strolz.

On his website, Johannes reveals even more about his journey, his successes and failures, his goals and his home. There are also some very honest and exciting stories waiting to be told.