Aleksandra Król: I Aim for a Medal. I Know I'm Really Good

You will find answers to these and other questions in Gabriela Koziara's interview with the current best Polish snowboarder, Aleksandra Król.

The Snowboard World Cup is starting any moment now. Are you satisfied with the work done during the preparation period?

This year, the preparations were quite challenging for us. Mainly due to the weather, which kept causing us trouble. We started snowboarding very late, in October. Throughout September, there was no snow on the glaciers, and when it appeared in Switzerland, we weren't allowed due to the Alpine Ski World Cup. Then other problems arose. When the snow finally came, it was too much, and we had to shorten our camps. We went to Finland, where there was too little snow again, so in the end, it's good that they canceled the first World Cup races for us because I now have more time to fine-tune my form. Although I'm not overly worried because I have plenty of hours on the board. It really doesn't make a huge difference to me that the preparation this year is somewhat worse.

Cross-country skiers, to maintain their form, consider roller skiing as a primary element of their summer training. How do snowboarders prepare for the season?

It's hard to replace the board even with a skateboard; it's just not the same. We try riding on pumptracks to learn to lower our position during turns. Above all, we train in the gym and do endurance, coordination, and sensorimotor ball exercises. When there's snow, we ride on glaciers and refine our form on the board there.

Observing your social media, one can notice that in winter you often go on ski tours. Is it a form of training or more of a leisure activity?

I'll say right away that I'm not good at skiing :) I can get down, but it doesn't look stylish. If I'm scared, I'll even brake with a snowplow. I've been skiing since I was little because when I was 2 years old, my parents put me on skis, and I skied until I was 7, then switched to snowboarding. Ski tours are not part of our training plan. It's just for our pleasure, and at the same time, it's also training. Because how long can you live just with a board? Whenever I have free time, I choose to go on ski tours, but more for relaxing my mind than for training.

With each season, more and more often the dates or locations of competitions are changed due to snow problems. Do you think the discipline suffers greatly from this? What can we expect in the future?

It seems to me that snowboarders had this happen for the first time, that there's not enough snow and the first competitions have to be moved. Honestly, they were quite early, because December 3-4 is the beginning of winter, and it's still in Italy, where the summer was very warm. I hope this won't happen in the future, and if it does, we should move the World Cups to March-April, when there is more snow and we can ride then. Unfortunately, due to the greenhouse effect, the seasons have changed a bit, and it's not like before, where the calendar winter begins and there must be snow. We don't have control over it. I hope they won't cancel the rest of the competitions, but like the last ones, which were moved to March. I hope there will be some solution, and federations and organizers will adapt to the seasons and move the starts. This year we surprisingly have a lot of them, maybe 20, which hasn't happened before. I hope it will go in that direction, and there will be more starts.

Does rescheduling competitions greatly disrupt your training plan? Do you have to modify your assumptions to fit the calendar?

This season, we have to peak in February because that's when the World Championships will take place. I'm talking about peak performance because ideally, it would be with me all year round, starting from the first competitions. But certainly, when there are more starts, you can make some mistakes, things may not work out, but there's more calmness. Because in a situation where there are, for example, only 5 starts for the season, one mistake eliminates you from further contention for top positions in the standings. When there are more starts, even if you make one mistake, there's still a chance to achieve a good position. We were supposed to have 6 starts this December. That's a lot for us. There will be four, but it's still good.

Does it affect your preparation?

This week I've already packed my bag four times because first, when the cup was planned, we were supposed to go for training there, so I packed for a month, then I got a message that no, it's canceled, we'll go somewhere for four days, so I repacked my bag. Yesterday I got info that maybe we'll go for a month, and today I found out that it's only for five days :) As you can see, it messes with us organizationally, and there's a problem with planning snow training. No one expected the cup to be canceled, we don't have trail reservations, and that's the worst part. Due to the fact that there were supposed to be competitions, training was provided by the organizer on site, and now we have to look for an alternative.

And mentally, does it change anything? Are you even more motivated, given the good results from last season?

I keep saying that I'm aiming for a medal. It was the same before the Olympics. 8th place (definitely not 7th, because that's what the results say) doesn't really interest me. Since it didn't work out in Beijing, I hope to get one at the championships as a consolation. I'll fight for it fiercely. Mentally, I'm prepared because I know I'm good. I won a World Cup competition last year and beat all the best girls, so I know it's achievable. I just have to do it; conditions have to be in my favor, I have to have that day. I have three starts planned for the championships because there's also the team event, so I'll probably compete with one of the guys. We're also high up in the standings there; we've already stood on the podium once, so we'll fight for it.

In the history of Polish snowboarding, we haven't yet experienced a spectacular success in the form of a medal. Do you think this is due to a lack of sufficient skills among athletes or a lack of support from the federation?

I think the problem lies in the fact that we don't regularly stand on the podium. I won last year, a teammate was second, but we couldn't maintain consistency. It's known that fans are only interested in victories and podium finishes. When I finish 8th, it's not perceived as a great success and doesn't attract much attention. It would be better for our discipline if we appeared more frequently at the top because there would be more buzz about us, people would start to take notice.

Alpine snowboarding is really spectacular, and there was a very high viewership at the Olympics. I received a lot of positive messages after my performance. However, as you noted, this was at the Olympics, and fans usually wake up only for major events, but it would be great if they were engaged consistently. I think television plays its part, but ski jumping is shown at prime times, while our competitions are usually in the morning. They're rarely held in the evening. Who wants to get up to watch qualifications at 9 and finals at 12? This greatly affects popularity. If we were shown more often and the discipline was promoted more, I think we would be better known, both individually and snowboarding in general. The youth is there, so we have a base.

In Poland, it's a niche discipline, and it's not easy to find sponsors; equipment is very expensive. We don't produce any boards here; we import them from Switzerland, so there are additional costs for customs, taxes, and a board costs twice as much as it should. We change equipment every season; we have to have reserves. This requires significant financial investment, and additionally, we don't have the infrastructure. We don't train on snowboards in Poland at all. We spend most of our time in Austria, Italy, and Switzerland. In the current circumstances, these are significant expenses; we have to go there, stay for a week, and come back. It's a life on suitcases, which can be exhausting. It's a pity that it's like this. Last year, I may have been on a snowboard training session twice. This year we don't plan to at all because there's always an issue that they don't want to give us access to the slope because there are tourists there. The lift won't earn from us because 5 people from the team will come for training, we don't pay for the track, so no one wants to give it to us. It's certainly costly and challenging, so I wish only enthusiasm and perseverance to our youth because, since we're not an alpine country, in our discipline, to achieve success, it takes many years of training and traveling. If someone has mountains nearby, they go out from home, ride for three days, then rest for three days at home, then go again, and we have to commute for 5-6 consecutive days. It's more exhausting than spending three days at an altitude of 3500 meters above sea level. Therefore, perseverance is key here. The example of Maryna Gąsienica-Daniel shows how much time it takes to achieve success.

What convinced you to choose this discipline? I suspect that as someone from Zakopane, you had the opportunity to try almost every winter sport.

As I mentioned, I've been skiing since I was a child because my parents skied, my brother skied, so winter sports were present in our family from an early age. Later, my brother started snowboarding on the first boards, I think they were Polsport boards. I watched him and said I wanted to try too. I started with freestyle boards because there weren't those small, hard boards back then. I'll explain right away that we call our alpine boards "hard". I went to one school competition, then another, I won some, and the club coach approached me and asked if I would like to go to national competitions, that he would arrange a better board for me. I went, won a few medals, but broke my leg at the beginning of my career. Even though I started in freestyle events because I had a medal in the Polish championship in snowboardcross, half-pipe, or big air, unfortunately, the doctors told me to stick to alpine, because it's much less prone to injuries, and I'm thin. That's why alpine snowboarding was safer for me, and there was less risk of breaking bones. I started training more towards that aspect and it turned out I was good at it, so that's how it stayed.

I understand that technique plays the most important role in snowboarding. It's not a discipline that requires good endurance or stamina.

It's a purely technical discipline. You can be the strongest person in the world or not do any sport other than snowboarding, and still win. I know a Russian athlete who doesn't do much in the summer, sometimes goes for a run, but generally not much, and she wins World Cups. This speaks for itself that it's a very technical sport and the mental aspect is very important here, to push yourself, put the board on edge, ride fast. So technique plays a crucial role here, not endurance or strength.

Between your debut in the World Cup and your first podium, it took 5 years. Does this show how difficult this discipline is?

I started training very late, at the age of 15. I broke my leg right away, which excluded me for two years, so I really started my adventure with this sport when I was 17. If you're an athlete in our discipline, it's very late. Now sixteen-year-olds are competing in World Cups, and at their age, I started with European Cups, Polish championships, so it took a while. Although very quickly, literally a year after returning from the injury, I got into the national team and started competing. The only thing was that I wasn't ready yet because I was too young in terms of experience and riding. It stressed me out a lot, and even though I was constantly working with a psychologist, it was mentally burdensome for me. Even when things were going well in training, I couldn't show the same in World Cups. It's different from lower-ranked competitions. I think this inability stemmed from a lack of experience, familiarity with everything. It took me several years because to be at the highest level, you can't make mistakes or be mentally unprepared.

You participated in three Olympic Games. If you were to summarize each of them, what memories come to mind first?

The first Olympics, Sochi 2014, didn't go well for me at all. I was happy just to qualify because it was very difficult. Only one other athlete from alpine snowboarding and I managed to qualify. I was a very young, inexperienced athlete, and stress overwhelmed me. Those competitions didn't go well for me at all; I think I fell two times in one run, and the next day I cut the flag. I remember the Olympics fondly only because of the debut because it was a huge event in my life, but in terms of results, I performed poorly.

I went to Pyeongchang already a bit older, with good results under my belt, so I was more confident. Additionally, the slope and its profile suited me. I did much better, finishing 11th, narrowly missing out on advancing to the next round. I fought until the end, and I consider it a big plus.

And now China brought the most satisfaction because besides a high placement in the competition, I was also the flag bearer for the team. I never in my life thought they might ask me for that. When they started calling me, initially I thought I had a positive Covid test because 20 missed calls during training are thought-provoking. When we finally managed to get in touch, I was a bit disoriented. I needed a moment to think about whether to even go to the opening ceremony of the Games, as I had already participated in it. Moreover, everyone started talking to me about some kind of curse, and I was like, "Oh my God, what curse, what's going on?" Fortunately, I'm not a superstitious person; I don't believe in such things. I thought it was an honor and something I would remember for the rest of my life. It's not known if I'll go to the next Olympics, so I agreed, and that's why I remember it so well. I don't look at it through the lens of Covid because it was awful. The feeling when I carried the flag, leading the Polish team, was indescribable. Admiration, honor, privilege.

Just pride, no need to say much.

Exactly. My mom told me she was so proud of me. Even when I won the World Cup, it didn't evoke such great emotions from her, so it really was a unique experience. Many people wrote to me, saying wow, super, what an honor. The central point of interest was more about the flag than the result itself.

You mentioned trying not to think about Beijing through the lens of pandemic restrictions and everything that was happening around. However, many athletes, like Natalia Maliszewska, couldn't compete due to a positive test result. Did you have in the back of your mind that a similar scenario might happen to you, or did you focus on your task?

Those were very strange Olympics, but we had been living with Covid for some time, and we knew what it would look like because there were sanitary rules at the World Cups. In China, however, they went crazy with the restrictions. We knew we had to wear masks, take tests, be cautious. It was just very exhausting. When we all flew on one charter plane from Poland and it turned out that the person sitting two seats away from me was positive, and I had breakfast with someone else the day before, I thought to myself: "Damn, not good, wonder what will happen." The only thing was, I was more sure that I wouldn't have a positive result because I had Covid at the end of the year. Literally on New Year's Eve. I felt terrible on New Year's Eve, then I even tested ambiguous on tests, and later negative. I just knew I had Covid, and those antibodies were high enough to avoid reinfection. But still, that stress was somewhere in the back of my mind for the first two days. Luckily, everything was okay.

Of course, these restrictions were burdensome. Masks everywhere, even at the gyms, we were afraid to take them off because everyone looked at us like we were abnormal. Disinfection everywhere, causing the skin to peel off our hands. We had to be very careful, not to walk, not to talk to other athletes, whereas at the previous Olympics, it was normal. Here, everyone isolated themselves. I spent time with a friend who was on the snowboarding team with me, and we lived together in a room. It wasn't known where or how one could get infected.

I had a funny experience when I went to the submarine simulator. I forgot I had motion sickness. I felt terrible, started taking off my mask, went down, sat down, started grabbing my head. They thought I had Covid, they followed me, took pictures with a machine, wanted to disinfect me completely. I told them to stop because I felt bad from it, but they didn't understand anything. It was difficult in terms of restrictions. It was impossible to feel the atmosphere of the Olympics, the whole setting, because everyone was afraid. Honestly, only during the opening ceremony, when I walked with the flag, did I feel like it was the Olympics.

Do you have a feeling, considering the results from last season, that you're in the best shape of your life? Are you capable of consistently making it to the podium?

I feel very confident, and I believe that my form is stable because after the Olympics, the results were similar and maintained at a high level; I consistently placed within the top eight. Maybe I didn't win, but I had many good runs. Now I approach it with the same mindset: I must be at the forefront because the 16 girls who make it to the final round are at a similar level. Then, a bit of luck and fewer mistakes decide. Mistakes always happen in competitions, and whenever there's someone next to you, you're racing against each other by hundredths of a second. The one who makes fewer mistakes wins, and sometimes luck is key. I was lacking it at the Olympics; other girls had more. I hope it will finally smile upon me.

I don't want to complain, but my parents always joke that I always lack luck. They say, "Whenever someone doesn't crash, you always crash, you always end up with the worse opponent in pairs," and so on. Well, that's how it goes :) At the Olympics, my friend, who won the bronze medal, entered the final with the 15th qualifying time. I raced with her in the second qualifying run and beat her by half a second, but she won a medal because she faced different opponents who crashed until the fight for bronze. You really need luck, that's why I sometimes wish for it too :) I try, I fight, and I'm not ashamed of how I performed at the Olympics because I didn't have an easy opponent; then I fell because I took a risk. I didn't want to lose gracefully; I wanted to fight for victory.

As I mentioned earlier, in our sport, form from training and preparation matters, but ultimately it's mostly about mindset and technique. You can't make mistakes, and you have to have a positive attitude; then the path to success is open. I'm well-positioned, I've been working on my technique for many years, so I'll fight and do my best to stand on the podium and promote this sport. Perhaps we need a snowboarding equivalent of Adam Małysz, and if I or my teammate from the national team achieve that, it would push this sport even further forward, and there would be even more enthusiasts.

I would like to ask about the mental aspect. You mentioned that you work with a psychologist. How specifically does such conversation help you, and would you recommend young athletes to seek professional help?

I'll start by saying that I am a psychologist by education, specializing in sports psychology, so I believe that collaboration from the very beginning of a career is advisable. Even if you think you don't have a problem, there are always techniques to develop, such as relaxation or concentration-enhancing techniques. There is always something to work on mentally. I don't treat myself. Of course, I apply some techniques, but I seek help from another psychologist. Mainly before competitions, if I feel stressed and pressured, I call my psychologist to talk about it because sometimes just talking about it with someone who doesn't judge you is invaluable. It doesn't have to be a coach or a teammate; a psychologist who can calm you down is enough. It works for me, so if I feel the need before major events or other competitions, we talk about it to relieve that tension. The same goes for other issues, like when I'm at home because there's no snow, not training, and I see someone else has that opportunity. Just discussing it with a psychologist makes the nerves go away, and I feel much calmer. We also developed a pre-competition routine and how I behave before each start. This needs to be worked out through trial and error, so it's best to find it early on because different methods work differently. After one of such trials failed for me, until I developed a pre-competition routine, my results were inconsistent. Such collaboration is also advisable if someone has an injury or is struggling with a loss. It's good to talk about it with a psychologist.

Let's move on to the topic of social media. You've amassed nearly 8,000 followers on your Instagram. Do you act spontaneously, or do you have a planned strategy?

More on the spontaneous side. Sometimes I ask my fiancé because he's more into these things and tells me when to post. I really have no idea about it, and sometimes he says, "You better post now, or don't post now because nobody will watch it." Sometimes it works out well, sometimes he's totally wrong, so I don't pay much attention to it. I try to ensure that the content is consistent and shows the real me in a cool way. I care about the quality of photos, I bother my fiancé to take pictures for me, shoot videos. I like it when these materials show something interesting. I try to engage with followers, ask them questions, respond to comments. Honestly, I often don't feel like doing it because I'm tired from other things, training, etc. However, I realize that in today's world, it's necessary for functioning or attracting sponsors. I observe how it attracts people because a lot of people reach out to me, asking if I'd like to promote a certain brand. Mainly, this happens through Instagram. However, I know I can't overdo it because I'd get lost in it, and I have to write everything down in my calendar so I don't forget. Maybe I'm posting a bit less on Instastories this year because honestly, I don't feel like it :) But I try to run an interesting profile to encourage people to engage in and watch my discipline; to show that it's not just training and the gym all the time, but I also have time to kitesurf, go climbing, generally to encourage people to engage in sports and travel, to show that sports lead to these travels. Thanks to camps and competitions abroad, I can see and explore interesting places. I try to encourage that because there's a tendency in society nowadays that not everyone feels like it. Maybe when they see cool photos and videos, someone will think it's worth a try.

How do you select collaborations? What criteria do you consider?

First of all, I have to consider the sponsors of the national team, and I can't accept offers from opposing companies that promote the same products, such as clothing. This means that many cool offers, like leggings or outdoor clothing, are out of the question. I mainly promote things that are useful in sports, such as supplements, frost creams. Recently, I became an ambassador for Atomic because I go ski touring and I want to encourage people to engage in it and show what it's about. It's not just a struggle uphill; you can take a dog for a walk along the way. It doesn't have to be the highest mountain; it can be on flat terrain. The point is just to move. It's important for me to test these products before recommending them. I always tell companies that I need to try it out before I can endorse it. It has to align with my conscience and I have to like it.

Do you create posts yourself, or does someone help you with recording Instastories or reels?

My fiancé doesn't go with me on trips, so unfortunately, he can't help me on the slope. Most often, I ask my teammates from the national team or use a tripod. Then I take photos with a self-timer or start recording, which runs for half an hour, and then I cut out the fragments I need. When someone is available, I ask them for help. I explain what kind of shot I need, we record it twice, and there's always something good that comes out of it. I do everything with my phone because it has a good camera and can take good photos. When I'm on site or my fiancé comes to competitions, then I ask him because he has a good eye and takes great photos. He knows what he's doing, he can operate a drone, so he helps me the most. In other situations, if I meet someone who is kind enough to help, they take photos for me. However, I do all the editing and adding content myself because I enjoy it. I'm not very keen on adding stories to show what I'm doing. I always forget to turn on my phone during training, and I'm embarrassed to ask my teammates. I don't like to involve them every time, so I usually set up the phone on a tripod. However, I try to show what my reality looks like so that people don't think I just go snowboarding and that's it. It really takes a lot of time, energy, and effort.

I understand that you aim to balance it out.

Yes. When I see sponsored posts, I usually just scroll past them or if there's too much talking, it annoys me, so I avoid such stories. Therefore, I try to diversify the content to avoid oversaturation of collaborations. People don't like that, and neither do I.

Do you consider yourself an influencer, then?

No, absolutely not! I hate that term. When a company approaches me with a collaboration offer and asks if I'll become their influencer, I cringe. First and foremost, I'm an athlete, and I happen to share content on Instagram. I don't like being called an influencer because that's not what I do. It's not my main occupation or source of income. I focus on sports, and social media is just an extension of that, but I'm still primarily an athlete.

Do you think there's a place for being an influencer in professional sports?

I think no athlete is a typical influencer. Only in the sense of influencing others, encouraging them to engage in sports. That's how I interpret it. Of course, any athlete who receives collaboration offers will post sponsored content, but it's definitely not as frequent as with typical influencers. It appears sporadically, and I simply don't have time for it. I think most athletes are like me; they're so exhausted from training that they post as much as they need to, but not more. Even if we look at top athletes, they don't constantly post sponsored content either. We're not oversaturated with it because we don't have the time or energy for it. And since people follow them, it's not because of the quantity of content they publish but because they admire and respect them for their achievements. I think that drives followers more than sponsored posts.

Lastly, what results will make Ola Król satisfied in the upcoming season? What do you expect from yourself?

As I mentioned earlier, I dream of winning a medal. Whether it's from the Olympics or the World Championships. I hope to at least achieve that at the World Championships. I've proven in the past season and in previous years that I belong to the top elite of athletes, so I'll fight with all my might to fulfill that dream. That's my main goal for this season, but also consistently ranking in the top 8 of the World Cup, standing on the podium, building form, and taking smaller steps towards the medal. We'll see how it goes, but I remain optimistic :)

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