MARJA PERSSON - SKI
PRESENTATION
INTERVIEW
When did you first start skiing and how did you discover freeriding?
I was born in Sweden so we are surrounded by snow. As soon as you start walking you learn how to ski but it wasn’t until I finished school, that I actually started skiing more I was telemarking at the time. Then I went to Verbier just to see if I could maybe get a job there to keep on improving my French. This was the season of 99 and it was like the major snow year, there was so much powder and it was the first time that I had to ski in those kinds of conditions. I was just oddly hooked, sounds like “dude, I really want to keep on doing this” and I though “ok, I’m gonna keep on skiing until I think it’s boring” and now, it is more than 10 years later and I’m still skiing.
What is the best memory you have from the Freeride World Tour?
The best moment is, without doubt, when I won the Nissan Xtreme Verbier 2007. 3 years before I had an injury when I broke 2 vertebras in my back, so I was not too sure if I could actually do well in the competition again. So I was super stoked with the fact that I was able to do well and had a run that I was really happy about, it was perfect. I didn’t really care anymore if I won or not but of course having the additional joy of winning was like too good to be true. I wondered if I would ever have this feeling again because it feels so good! When you are standing on top of your run and feeling compelled you’re like “whoa”, you are maybe ‘scared’ of crashing or stuff like that but it’s actually more a challenge, you challenging yourself so I would call it something positive.
Do you do any other sports during summertime?
I like any sport that doesn’t feel like it is a sport. I just do stuff that I think is fun that is actually making you feel some adrenaline or something like that. I was looking for some sports that was quite similar to free ride in the summer and the closer I get is probably biking because it’s you have the same feeling, you can bike uphill (you get your physical training through that) and then you get the adrenaline on going down.
What about your last season?
I’m very happy with my last season, the results were pretty good. I was on the podium on every competition and I did my two first expeditions which is amazing. We went to Mongolia in April-May and I went to Peru where we did a charity project to collect some money for street kids in Cajamarca so we have supported two projects. It’s such a good combination to do competition and free ride filming in the winter and then do some mountaineer expeditions in the summer.
What are your projects for the coming year?
In January the first stage of the Freeride World Tour starts with the Nissan Russian Adventure in Sochi, the second one will be in France and after that I’m going to try to go to Alaska. It has just been a dream since I started skiing to go to those mountains. If you’re not dreaming to go to Alaska, you’re not a free skier.
What are you hoping to achieve in your next competitions?
I am just hoping for next year that I try to keep my goals and expectations quite low. One goal is to stay healthy and fit and not get injured. Then another goal with the Freeride World Tour, I hope that I’ll qualify for the final, Nissan Xtreme Verbier. It’s the best competition that you can do and I love the atmosphere there.