Wendy Holdener speaks out about the death of her brother

On Tuesday, the Schwyz resident spoke for the first time since the death of her brother, who died of cancer in February. She promotes a documentary that he made and which has a social aim.

Rainer Sommerhalder

This is an extremely unusual request. Before Wendy Holdener addresses the media on Tuesday afternoon as part of a Swiss Ski day in Dübendorf (ZH), all cameras must be turned off. The 31-year-old young woman certainly wishes to speak for the first time in public and in complete frankness about death in February of his brother and closest confidant, Kevinbut she doesn’t want to be filmed.

The appearance of the slalom skier on the 35 World Cup podiums is fundamentally different from those, for example, of Marco Odermatt, Loïc Meillard or Corinne Sutter. Wendy Holdener stands in front of the microphones and launches into a long ten-minute monologue, without any questions being asked.

She says she’s nervous ahead of her first media meeting since February.

The Schwyzoise also explains having realized over the last few months “that each person experiences a grieving process in their own way”. She says she is proud of the way her family handled this terrible twist of fate.

On a purely sporting level, Wendy Holdener is at the top. His left ankle, broken last December, is completely healed and poses no problems for him. Head coach Beat Tschuor says the 31-year-old skier was able to follow the entire preparation program.

And she can count on the services of a new coach: Valaisan Jörg Rothen, who was previously the personal trainer of Henrik Kristoffersen. In the group of six slalomers, Rothen takes care of Holdener above all. It was good for the Schwyzoise to get back on the slopes, as she testifies:

The Holdener/Rothen pairing is an example of this new trend towards individualization of alpine ski training. Like what is done in the men’s team around Marco Odermatt. This organization is very demanding and has only been possible since the staff supervising the slalom skiers was expanded. “This is the way to go if you want to achieve the most success,” assures Beat Tschuor.

“What a movie will help people”

Despite the difficult times that Wendy Holdener has experienced in recent months, there was never a question for her of putting away her lattes for good. After her injury, she quickly felt that she missed skiing. The one who made her World Cup debut fourteen years ago continues to have a lot of fun on the slopes.

“I want to do better than what I did. I want to fight for victory in slalom again,” proclaims the skier from Unteriberg. His very positive preparation and a good feeling give him confidence. Even if she knows that there will be some difficult moments during the season, linked to frequent memories of her brother (who was also her manager), whose absence is painful.

Moreover, for Wendy Holdener, there is currently more important than the start of the World Cup in a month in Sölden:

It was a project that was close to his brother’s heart. Two weeks before his death, SRF announced to him that his film would be financed.

Since the onset of his illness, Kevin Holdener has extensively documented his life with videos filmed with his Go-Pro camera. A few weeks before his death, the young man even hired a filmmaker.

Together, they thought about the angle of this documentary for a long time, says Wendy Holdener. “The struggle for life” or “the taboo of death” represented two options. His brother, who only lived 34 years, wanted to give courage to other cancer patients with this project.

Another moment of strong emotion????

The skier explains, with tears in her eyes:

In private, she speaks very willingly about her brother. “Kevin planned my life. Today we tell each other a lot of cool stories about him that make me smile. And I ask myself in many situations: ‘What would he say right now?’

Translation and adaptation into French: Yoann Graber.