Ski racing tradition i Sweden is strong. In the skiing community, young boys and girls are raised to become ski racers, almost by default. And in this case, Sweden’s lonely Downhill skier Felix Monsén is no different.

His destiny already set by the tradition of his family. His father, Johan, was an aspirant for a position in the Ski Team Sweden Alpine back in the days. Johan grew up in Sollefteå, a real Swedish ski town with its own 1500-meter downhill slope.

Infamous for its fearsome starting tower.

Felix’s parents met each other while attending college in Wyoming. His mother, Karen, was an athlete in tennis and swimming.

Two lovebirds raising four sons. Felix, the third in the row. Skiing was in his blood. But it could have been a different choice. I had to give Felix a call.

Felix, I have recognized you since you were a young kid, from the training runs in Åre and Duved. A ski nerd as I am, watched your development from a close distant.

I can’t say I know you as a person. I never coached you, but I coached your younger brother Zack during his younger years. Knowing his personal technique and skills. Learning to know your family.

You are four brothers, all became excellent skiers. But that was not obvious at a start, was it?

-Absolutely not, we all tried different sports. I quickly realized that swimming was not for me, but I loved tennis, and football*.

As a youngster growing up in Stockholm, I played a lot of football. We had a tight team, all raised in the same class at school.

When my parents dropped the news that we were about to relocate to Åre due to my father have accepted the position as the head of the Ski team Sweden Alpine, my reaction was not positive.

*Soccer

Why is that?

–I loved my school football team, and I was not happy to leave them behind.

Accepting my faith, young as I was, moving to Åre. I tried to hold on to my other sports, Tennis and Football.

Me and my younger brother Zack even qualified for the national tennis final in Båstad from our remote location in the mountains. Moving up in age, I qualified for the region football team, trying to balance the football carrier with skiing.

But It’s obvious, if you live in the mountains, this is not easy to handle, so the choice fell on skiing.

As I said, I have been watching you and your three brothers progress on skis over the years. I would say that the overall family skills are to be seen in the slalom discipline. Except you, you were in my eyes more skilled in giant slalom. What made you fall in to the speed disciplines?

–You are right. This happened in high school. My coach at that time, Tompa (Thomas Eriksson)* encouraged me to try my limits in the speed disciplines.

It’s funny, you are to mention Tompa as the one leading you in to downhill. In my eyes, he was a dedicated slalom skier before turning in to coaching.

–Well, I owe him for choosing downhill. Without him, I would not be doing this, for sure.

*Tompa is one of Sweden most experienced ski coaches, today responsible for the Trysil race academy speed team

You have been on the Ski Team Sweden Alpine since you were in high school, now turning 30. You are entering your prime years as a downhill skier. And for the first time, you are outside the team. What happened?

–I was nominated for the team, but they did not allocate any money to the speed disciplines. Offering me no money and no downhill training. I had a sense it could be changes as I had been injured and lost ranking. But I must say this was a bit of a chock for me.

We are sitting her talking, and you just came back from almost 40 days on snow in South America.

You did preseason training and also some competitions over there. How’s that possible without the support from the team?

–After the Swedish Ski Federation dropped the bomb that there will be no money.

I had many thoughts during the late spring, what to do. I decided to leave the national team and try to find my own funding. To create my own team.

I did invest a lot of time thinking about how to proceed with that, and I also got some help to formalize these thoughts into a sale pitch.

Finding my unique selling points.

So during the summer I did numerous of calls and had meetings with potential sponsors. And out of that I raised money to fund my camp in Chile.

If you are a downhill skier, it costs a lot of money to manage a season on the world cup circus.

I understand that you were hoping to raise around 100,000 euros. I guess that you managed to raise this as we are sitting here talking about your future as a downhill skier?

–It has been a struggle, but I was determent to pull this off by my own hands. There are fans out there who want to see a swede in the world cup.

I’m so grateful for the massive support I have met. So yes, I now have funding to proceed with my ski carrier. My sponsors will also act as my fan club, travelling to the races.

I will interact with them on site, It’s a part of the sponsor package. I think it will be a cool event for all. My fundraiser alone paid my camp in South America.

From the money out from my bigger sponsors*, I have hired a coach who also helps with my skis, which is an absolute must.

But I need more donations and are thankful for any gifts or sponsorship.

Here is a link to Felix Monsén fundraiser. Please donate.

* Felix’s main sponsors are: The Londoner, Nocco, Hyrlandslaget, Tagehus and Atomic

That’s fantastic, tell me about the surrounding team.

–As I mentioned, I have hired a coach. Michi Ortner, he’s Austrian. He will help me with my training and on competitions, of course.

The main focus for him will be on preparing my equipment, which is essential.

I’m based in Innsbruck and are in close contact with my former teammate Alexander Köll who has tons of contacts useful for me as a ski racer.

He helps a lot. Also, my younger brother Zack is involved. Not to mention my other family members, they all work as my mood managers.

And my fans, of course. Not all put money in, but they can be helpful in other ways.

How do you manage your on slope training when you are alone? It’s not easy to get access and set up a downhill course all by yourself

-I have been doing this for quite a while now, and I know many people in the world cup. We who race downhill always try to team up. Especially the smaller teams.

To get efficient training. My team will work together with Slovenia and Italy. We will work as one team on training days and on race days.

At the age of 30, you are now in your prime as a downhill skier.

The upcoming five years are supposed to be your golden ones. Before your injuries, you had some results pointing in that direction, with a 13th place i Lake Louise as the best so far. What is lacking for you to take the next step, to reach the podiums?

–I need to improve my rankings, it’s difficult to reach the podium coming in from behind. The course gets worn, and every racer cuts new grooves, so to reach the podium, I must first climb the rankings.

It can’t all depend on the bib number, my own brother Niklas won in Val d’Isere with bib number 35, but I see what you mean. Technical vise, what are you working with to improve yourself as a downhiller?

–There are things to improve, for sure. I think that I’m experienced enough now, so I do the most coaching to myself.

Analyzing the runs from video.

I learned from my former coach Charly Pichler to keep it simple. One thing is to find more time in the tuck position, studies showing that time spent by the winner in tuck position sometimes are 15 seconds more than the ones in a top 10 position.

Tucking in also means seeking speed, committing to it. I’m also working on my turns. There are other small things to improve as well, we are chasing 1/00 of a second at a speed of 140 km/hour.

You had your injuries, you also have long experience as a downhiller.

And you know all the courses that are on the scene. There is a long tradition of being a lonely Swedish downhill skier in the world cup, fighting for podiums. Are you ready now to step up and carry on that tradition?

–Yes, I am. As there has been almost three years of injures and hardly any competitions, I need to compete more.

That was also the reason I stayed so long in Chile, to enter the South America cup.

I healed. My body is in good shape, and I’m getting more comfortable in the starting gate. After three years of surgery and rehabs (knee and back). Coming back, I realized it’s a different ballgame, training versus competition. But I’m getting there.

I have a feeling we could talk for hours about this subject, so much passion for the sport. We need to stop here and save it for another day.

Thanks for your time and good luck this upcoming season. Do you have some final words to my readers?

-Yes, check out my GoFundMe page, I hope to see you on the slopes!

The ultimate ski racing is downhill racing.

Did you like the post? What would you enjoy reading about at Skitrotter? Please comment below and let us know.