I started skiing and ice skating when I was just three years old. I obtained basic movement skills through play in a circus group during my first elementary school years – monocycle as well as balancing and magic tricks. Later, as a member of various sports associations and clubs, I started playing football, ice hockey, tennis and canoeing and took part in a number of competitions and championship events.

When I was six years old, I loved to watch snowboarders on the winter runs and decided that I wanted to concentrate on that particular sport and become as good as they were. That is how my passion was born. I could not wait to get on the runs in the morning and stayed there until they closed in the evening.

At elementary school, I once wrote that my aim was to compete in the Olympic Games. After finishing elementary school, in fact, I chose to attend the Winter Sports High School at Malles in the Venosta Valley where I could best combine my passion for sport and my hope of becoming a professional snowboarder together with getting a good general education.