Alpine skiing: Wendy Holdener opens up about the death of her brother

It was an intimate moment that Wendy Holdener shared Tuesday with a dozen people who had arranged their microphones and recorders on a small table in front of her. Only the cameras were turned off, a request from the Schwyz champion.

Tuesday was the day when Swiss skiers picked up their equipment for the new season. Each time on this day there is an atmosphere of great departure, of joy at being reunited, of anticipation of winter and new challenges. In this bare annex room of The Hall event building, the atmosphere in the middle of the day was very different.

For the 31-year-old, the trip to Dübendorf was difficult. She came to speak for the first time in public about the death of her brother. On February 22, Kevin Holdener lost, at the age of 34, his battle against cancer which had been gnawing at him for a long time. Chemotherapy didn’t work.

Wendy Holdener was deprived of the man who had always been by her side since he ended his own skiing career in 2011, shortly after the terrible diagnosis. Kevin Holdener was his press officer, handling meetings with media and sponsors. He assisted his sister and gave her advice. “He planned my life,” says the athlete. The void he leaves behind is enormous and impossible to fill.

She stands in front of the journalists. She pushed aside the chair provided to her. She wrote down what she was going to say on her cell phone. She was tense before this meeting. Wendy Holdener has already won five World Cup races in her career, four individual Olympic medals and two world champion titles, always there for major events, focused, controlling her emotions. The current situation is quite different. It’s no longer about podiums or medals, it’s about his life. Of anguish. A completely different story, much more personal.

“A year ago, my brother’s health deteriorated significantly, this is how the young champion begins her story. Chemotherapy became complicated, he no longer responded to it, and in February he died of pneumonia.

Wendy Holdener cries and apologizes

There were moments on Tuesday when her voice stopped, when she looked around the room for support, when tears flowed and she apologized. “Most of the time, I feel pretty good,” she emphasizes, after wiping away her tears. I am very happy with the way my family handled the situation, the way we supported and helped each other. Kevin would be very proud of the way we did things.”

Even on the track, there are moments when her thoughts wander, when she sees images of her brother in front of her. Sometimes, when she encounters difficulties, she wonders what advice he would have given her. “I don’t cry every day, but I miss him.”

The memories are not only negative, says the athlete. “I like talking about Kevin, also with people who knew him, who experienced things with him. So many beautiful stories make me smile and make me happy.” The memory of the last day before his death is one of them. Kevin Holdener married his longtime girlfriend, in front of her family. “He made the request before he knew he had pneumonia. What a joy to see that he had managed to make this day so joyful, with all this positive energy.”

Over the past few weeks and months, remembering those moments has given him strength. Skiing, which she loves and which she does not want to give up, also stimulated her. “I want to continue living in such a way that he also finds pleasure in it, wherever he is.”

Documentary about siblings

Wendy Holdener wants to care for and revive the memory of her younger brother. This is why a documentary, initiated by Kevin Holdener in collaboration with the SRF, will be released at the end of October. We will see private images of him, taken in mass with his small GoPro camera. His sister will talk about the tragedy there.

In early February, Kevin Holdener received a phone call announcing that the film’s budget had been approved. Two weeks later, he died, overcome by cancer which, over the last 14 years, had perhaps given him two years of respite, as the champion recounts. The project became an affair of the heart for her and Carmen, Kevin’s wife. “We want to show his life in a positive light. He wanted to help people with cancer, motivate them, he wanted his life to help others.”

The fact that her brother’s final days fell at a time when she wasn’t rushing from one race to the next may have helped her get through this ordeal. “Perhaps it was inevitable,” she concludes. Shortly after the start of the season, she broke her ankle after a fall in training and did not race again. She is now recovered. If she is ready, she will find out at the end of October in Sölden, a competition which marks the first World Cup of the year.

René Hauri has been a sports journalist since 2007 and follows both skiing and Formula 1, on site and remotely. He is also responsible for the sports section. More info

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