“Oforto”? Beat Feuz surprises and creates puzzles
Emmentaler cheerfully criticizes and analyzes. The former skater made a huge mistake just once, and stunned people with his accent.
Successful premiere on SRF: Beat Feuz enjoyed the mic for two hours.
Photo: Silas Zendel
The race is still in its infancy when Pete Views manages to say the first thing on the microphone: “Here in Val Gardena, I’m on a first-name basis with every wave, after all, I’ve accepted everyone, even if I haven’t.” I do not want it.”
Descending into the Saslung wilderness in South Tyrol is the first step for the Emmentaler driver who has been racing as a co-commentator on SRF. And he’s not backing down. Not by evaluations, expectations, or criticism. In loose order it looks like this: Marco Schwarz (40)? “He’s trying to drive tactically, he’s very hesitant, he doesn’t like that short landing.” Adrian Theo (26)? “He is far from the goal, and he will not be able to continue it.” Marco Odermatt (3rd)? “We will see a completely new line, and in Ciaslat it will also lead to the narrows. He came in rudely, perfect!” Nils Hintermann (26th)? “He is climbing the first wall cautiously. Now he is hesitant, there are many things that cannot be understood.” Alexis Mooney (43)? “I don’t really like the thing about jumping, you have to shake with every jump.”
Miscalculation
Once Fuse dares to make a bold declaration – and he immediately misses the mark. “The victory is over,” he said, as Alexander Kildee drove to the key point at Siaslat, 19 hundredths behind Odermatt, and just a little off target. The Norwegian finally takes a two-hundredth lead before American Bryce Bennett pushes him aside. “I didn’t get to watch him in training at Beaver Creek,” Feuse reflects on the surprise winner. “How he rode the skis: Like he’d never skied before, right next to the boots.”
Fuse loves the microphone, he never hesitates and often finds the right words. He’s only had a Didier Blache moment once, when commentator Stefan Hofmann questioned the moment. “Oforto”? Deeper Emmental tone: Stefan Rogentin must find himself at a “disadvantage” in Siaslat, meaning that he does not drive the car as well as the Graubünden native does. When teammate Gilles Rollin, like Roggentin, lost time at the top because, in Feuse’s opinion, he was driving too smoothly, he quickly sent a message to the coach. “Yes, they heard on the radio that there might be a more direct line,” Fuse replied.
And with the overland French driving, the long “Ääääääh” could be heard over and over again. During Nils Alphand’s wild ride, Feuse said: “Oh, oh, well, these Frenchmen, the coaches don’t begrudge them anything.” It’s a lively start to his second career.
He brought himself into the game
Fuse got himself into the game for them. In the summer he received a phone call from Hoffman who needed information. At the end of the conversation, Fuse surprisingly asked if he could imagine him as a TV expert. Hoffman immediately called his bosses. “As I later found out, there was already interest in me, but no one seemed to dare to ask me,” says the Olympic downhill champion.
The 36-year-old was convincing at the audition, and shortly after the start of the season he completed another television studio audition, commentating on Pedigree from last winter with Hoffman and Adrian Arnett. “I was silent during my travels,” says Fuse. He didn’t get advice from other experts, look up any statistics or take notes before the first show. “My preparation is 16 years at the World Cup, at a relatively good level.”
Feuz continues in Wengen in mid-January. There he will take a joint tracking shot with fellow expert Marc Berthoud. The idea is that they can even talk to each other while moving through the communications system. After that, he will also sit in front of the microphone in Kitzbühel and Saalbach. “I’m happy because I now have more than two minutes to perform,” he says.
This Thursday, it is two hours because the SRF displays every driver until the number 64. And the fuse? He has to “let everything settle first – as after landing.”
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