A sign of recognition

The Philanthropist: Is it true that you knew you wanted to be a ski racer from the age of three?

Tina Weira­ther: Child­ren are often asked what they want to become. My answer was ‘ski racer’ from a young age.

TP: Were you ever tempted by other professions?

TW: Even though I wanted to become a ski racer, I also knew that this kind of career was anything but a matter of course. That’s why I always had a plan B – or even a plan C. I would have been inte­res­ted in being a jour­na­list because I liked writing. But I chan­ged my mind from one day to the next. I even wanted to be a hair­dresser once, and cut my dolls’ hair. But the older I got, the more I became passio­nate about skiing. I got a taste of success early on, which bols­te­red my resolve.

TP: Still, your career wasn’t straightforward?

TW: I suffe­red four inju­ries before I was 20, which set me back a lot. At the time, I really wonde­red if it was still physi­cally possi­ble for me to do this. But at the end of the day, every athlete always has to think about step­ping into a diffe­rent profes­sion, because your time as an athlete is limited.

TP: Your plan A worked.

TW: I kept going and things worked out the way I had drea­med they would.

TP: You were aware that you could not take your career for gran­ted: you’ve been inju­red seve­ral times. Who helped you make your dream come true, despite these setbacks? Did you also receive support from foundations?

TW: No. I was lucky that the Liech­ten­stein Ski Asso­cia­tion was on a very strong footing at the time. They provi­ded all the equip­ment and the coaches, and also paid for the hotels for trai­ning camps. My parents also helped. My mother stood in the ski cellar every night on the weekend and got my skis ready. She went with me to trai­ning, to races and to ever­y­where else. Children’s sports are impos­si­ble without parents: you spend every weekend on the slopes and driving down the moun­tain. As an eight-year-old, you’re not in a posi­tion to orga­nise this yours­elf. Nowa­days, I some­ti­mes think that I don’t know if I’d do that for my child as a mum. It requi­res a huge amount of great effort by the whole family; it’s not easy.

TP: Your mother, hers­elf a successful ski racer, foun­ded the Top Talent Sport Foun­da­tion (TTSF). You’ve taken over her role at the foun­da­tion. Was that a logi­cal step for you?

TW: My mother wanted to leave the TTSF after 23 years, but she didn’t want to burden me with the task either. She said she didn’t have the energy and that she was going to shut down the foun­da­tion. I imme­dia­tely said: ‘No, Mum, you can’t do that! I’ll keep it going.’ She was reli­e­ved and very plea­sed by this.

TP: Why is this commit­ment important to you?

TW: I never doub­ted that I would do this. I knew what impact the foundation’s work had: I’ve seen the stabi­lity that sport gives young people. Adole­s­cence is a compli­ca­ted time. Chan­ging schools or the pres­sure to learn can be a reason to stop exer­cis­ing, and the finan­cial burden on parents is also getting heavier. In this phase of life, when so many things are uncer­tain – friend­ships, school, iden­tity – sport is a source of stabi­lity and self-confi­dence. You learn to rise to new chal­lenges and expe­ri­ence success. And people who are enga­ged in sport simply have less time to come up with stupid ideas. Support is so important during this time. Even if we don’t have a massive amount of money at our dispo­sal, it’s a sign of reco­gni­tion. ‘Hey, someone belie­ves in me, someone thinks what you’re doing is cool.’ This gives young people power. That’s why I’m proud of our work – and that’s why support­ing young people is so important to me, even though not all of them make it to the top.

TP: This is precis­ely the crucial ques­tion: not all of them manage to get into elite sport. How does TTSF deal with those who fail? Do you also provide support with coaching and other services?

TW: We provide finan­cial support. Addi­tio­nal services such as psycho­lo­gi­cal coaching are provi­ded by the Liech­ten­stein Olym­pic Commit­tee, with which we have a close rela­ti­onship. Our board of trus­tees discus­ses this a great deal: should we provide any support at all to someone who’s had a bad season? Or should we support them even more? We tend to favour the latter approach. If you are successful, you will find spon­sors and get help from asso­cia­ti­ons. Those who are in the thick of the fight need the most support. That’s why we’re less inte­res­ted in results than in will, passion and reflec­tion. When someone descri­bes how they spend all night thin­king about what went wrong after a defeat, we see the fire in them – and that’s what we want to promote. Parti­cu­larly in sports where physi­cal diffe­ren­ces play a big role, results are hardly an indi­ca­tor at this age of who will do well down the line.

Those who are in the thick of the fight need the most support.

Tina Weira­ther

TP: Is this a reflec­tion of your own career, with all the inju­ries and doubts?

TW: A little bit, yes. Of course, you have to be careful not to see too much of your own story in these cases. People have diffe­rent lives, diffe­rent paths with diffe­rent desti­nies: you mustn’t map the temp­late of your own life onto them. But because I have expe­ri­en­ced many setbacks myself, I can sympa­thise with them. The uncer­tainty of whether you will come back is often worse than the pain itself. This expe­ri­ence makes it easier for me to be under­stan­ding and take athle­tes seriously, even if they’re not deli­ve­ring at that moment.

TP: Was that also what moti­va­ted you to get invol­ved in chari­ta­ble work?

TW: Defi­ni­tely. My inju­ries made me aware of how privi­le­ged I am: born in Liech­ten­stein, raised in a loving family, being able to pursue my passion – and ever­y­thing worked out. This happi­ness cannot be taken for gran­ted. I think it would be awful if you were not aware of your own happi­ness in such a situation.

TP: And that’s why you’re invol­ved with the foundation?

TW: I think you have to give some­thing back. The least I can do is use my foun­da­tion to give young athle­tes a chance. 

TP: How does the foun­da­tion finance its work?

TW: As a small foun­da­tion, we are finan­ced by private dona­ti­ons. Lots of Liech­ten­stein citi­zens appre­ciate the sport and support us, without wanting to have their logo on a jersey.

TP: Does it help that Liech­ten­stein is shaped by short distances and that people know each other personally?

TW: Good ques­tion. Yes, maybe. Espe­ci­ally when my mother was still running the foun­da­tion, she ente­red into a lot of part­ner­ships with a more direct approach. The donor provi­ded support to a young athlete directly, who then wrote a letter to thank them and told them how the season went. This crea­tes a sense of closen­ess, and the donor then follows the athlete’s results in the media. Today, support is no longer provi­ded on an indi­vi­dual basis. Of course, all our donors are noti­fied of who the athle­tes are and how they’ve got on. It proba­bly helps that we know each other, because we deli­bera­tely don’t have a large struc­ture or a website – this also helps to keep the number of requests manageable.

TP: You don’t have a website? And this helps to limit your workload?

TW: With us, every franc goes from the donor to the athle­tes. Anything we eat and drink at board meetings is paid for out of our own pockets. We also pay for ever­y­thing oursel­ves at our Christ­mas party. If we ran a website, we would pay for it ourselves.

TP: How large is your board of trustees?

TW: There are seven of us. Katja – who supported my mother too – also helps with the admin.

TP: How many athle­tes does the TTSF fund and how many appli­ca­ti­ons do you receive each year?

TW: At the moment, we’ve mana­ged to strike a good balance. Last year, we spon­so­red 18 athle­tes, and had to reject five to ten.

TP: You have a high accep­tance rate. How much time does it take to submit an application?

TW: It takes about an hour. You need to complete a ques­ti­on­n­aire. We ask for the coach’s cont­act details and want to know about the applicant’s wider envi­ron­ment. If we would find it helpful, we also ask for more infor­ma­tion about their back­ground. Many athle­tes send us crea­tive appli­ca­ti­ons with photos or perso­nal stories. It is important to us to consider the broa­der situa­tion as well: the parents, the coach, the child’s motivation.

TP: Do you also involve coaches and offi­ci­als, fami­lies and those around you in your discussions?

TW: Abso­lut­ely. We might talk to the coach on the phone and ask what their work with the child looks like. Or we might explore their poten­tial in more detail or ask what they’re curr­ently working on. We also ask ques­ti­ons about their finan­cial situa­tion if neces­sary. Often, howe­ver, you don’t need a phone call.

TP: When is in-depth clari­fi­ca­tion needed?

TW: If we don’t yet know enough, for exam­ple because we haven’t read anything about the athlete in the news before. Since people are mentio­ned in the news­pa­pers at an early stage in our coun­try, we can track quite a sports­peo­ple in this way. And we seek clari­fi­ca­tion in sports that the seven trus­tees aren’t as fami­liar with.

TP: And how do you find these talen­ted athletes?

TW: We have a variety of members on the board of trus­tees who are inte­res­ted in diffe­rent sports. Of course, winter sports are my thing. I also have ties to tennis, because my brot­hers played tennis a great deal. From time to time, we approach talen­ted indi­vi­du­als and encou­rage them to send us an appli­ca­tion, but many apply off their own bat.

TP: Your foun­da­tion will soon be cele­bra­ting its 25th birth­day. What role does it play for sport in Liech­ten­stein today?

TW: A small but valuable one. We speci­fi­cally support very young indi­vi­dual athle­tes, usually between the ages of 13 and 21. After­wards, either asso­cia­ti­ons and profes­sio­nal struc­tures take over – or the young people decide to forge a diffe­rent path. What’s important to us is the phase in which sport gives you stabi­lity and you learn things that stay with you for life. We have a presence during this period: we can really make a diffe­rence and have a posi­tive impact on people’s lives.

TP: You’re also a UNICEF ambassa­dor. What does this entail?

TW: My role is to raise aware­ness of the situa­tion of child­ren around the world, to coll­ect dona­ti­ons, to high­light issues such as educa­tion, health and protec­tion, and some­ti­mes to travel to diffe­rent places to see what things are like on the ground.

TP: How did your invol­vement with UNICEF come about?

TW: UNICEF asked me if I would like to become the first female ambassa­dor for Switz­er­land and Liech­ten­stein. At the time, I had recei­ved a lot of small-scale enqui­ries, but I wanted to focus on one thing and get really stuck in. UNICEF was the perfect fit because it combi­nes long-term projects with real impact.

TP: What is it like to work in the field?

TW: During my field trip to Malawi, we visi­ted a centre for malnou­ris­hed child­ren. In moments like these, you become aware of how unequally oppor­tu­ni­ties are distri­bu­ted – and how much every piece of support counts in giving child­ren the pros­pect of a healthy and safe life. At the same time, it is clear that UNICEF’s work is only possi­ble thanks to dona­ti­ons and volun­t­ary contributions.

Giving child­ren the pros­pect of a healthy and safe life.

Tina Weira­ther

TP: How does that affect you, espe­ci­ally as a mother?

TW: You have to tread carefully when intro­du­cing child­ren to subjects like these. I remem­ber telling my godchild that we were going to Malawi, where child­ren don’t have enough to eat. He was four at the time and then spent weeks asking his mother what was going on with the child­ren who didn’t have enough to eat. Expe­ri­en­ces like these shape us. I think it’s important to show your own child­ren the reality outside of our afflu­ent lives, but in a measu­red manner, at the right time and with sensitivity.

TP: In addi­tion to all this commit­ment, you’re also a co-commen­ta­tor on SRF. Is this your plan B in practice?

TW: To an extent, yes. I used to want to write, but I’m now commen­ting live. That’s a good fit. It’s nice to be able to pass on my expe­ri­ence and follow the sport from a diffe­rent perspective.