(July 19, 2021) – For our seventh athlete profile of 2021 (and the 29th in the “Getting to Know…” series) we chat with German natural track luge slider Sara Bachmann (and her wife/interpreter Dunja)! Sara has been sliding for over 20 years now, with the last ten seasons taking place on the FIL Natural Track World Cup. In the past decade she has amassed competing in the FIL World Cup on natural track for over ten seasons and in that time has amassed six World Cup medals and 15 top five finishes, while also medaling in doubles/team competition as well. Sara’s wife, Dunja, acted as an interpreter for the interview.
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Slider: Sara Bachmann
Team: German Natural Track Luge
Home track: Latsch, ITA
Hometown: Latsch, ITA
To start: What is your favorite track on the FIL schedule?
It’s definitely Umhausen. It’s a really fun track that puts on exciting races, and there’s a lot of action! I
Unrelated to the track, what is your favorite town on tour to visit?
It’s Moscow for sure. I love to visit the town, love to see the museums and everything as well.
How did you get involved in Natural Track Luge, did you play any sports before?
I was lucky because I have a track in my hometown and that’s how I got involved in the sport. I hadn’t played any sports before, though.
My parents’ house is right next to the track in Latsch and I saw it and thought “Oh wow, this looks fun, I want to try this!” and the rest is history.
Does your family come to many of your races?
They used to come to most of them, and they still come to the big races, but not so much to the smaller ones. It’s difficult for them to get to all of them with work and the cost and everything.
Prior to 2017 you were sliding for Italy, and then made the switch to Germany. What was that like?
There were some internal things going on with the Italian team, and Germany had already asked for me to slide with them before. The change was really welcome by the Germans and have really enjoyed sliding for them.
The Germans are all really kind and have been family from the very beginning. I’m still in contact with many of the Italian sliders as well, there’s no animosity there at all.
When the season is over, how much time do you take before training? What do you do with that time?
I usually take a month-long break, though I’m very active during that time off. I do climbing with my wife, she’s a little bit restless so I don’t take much of a proper break. But after that month off of luge training I get back to work with it.
Is there anything with climbing that works for luge training?
We do a lot of things in training for luge and climbing that are similar, like pushups and situps and things like that. We keep pushing each other like that. Adrenaline is also a big part of climbing like it is in luge, too!
Do you have a specific pre-race routine or anything to get you going?
The only thing I really do before a race is say a prayer and make a cross just before the start, but I don’t really have a set routine. It really varies depending on which track I’m racing and everything, but there’s no major routine.
You like to ride motorcycles, how long have you been riding for?
I started when I was 16 years old. Since I was a little kid I always had a dream to ride motorcycles and as an adrenaline junkie it was something I knew I’d like.
Tell us about your dogs!
We have two dogs! Mine is Kyra, and she’s four years old. Yoda is new, still a bit of a puppy and has so much going on in his head. He’s about 10 months old now, and we got him in March! We do a lot of things with them!
Did Kyra get along with Yoda right away or was there any jealousy?
The first day she was acting like “Oh my God who is this?!” But now they’re really happy and they do everything together: They eat together, play together, rest together, they’re just always together!
You and Dunja spend a lot of time traveling, where has been your favorite place to go?
It depends. For hiking, I think our mountains here are the best. There’s so many of them and you can do literally everything on them! When we decide we want snow we can go up to the high mountains, but if you just want to watch just a nice sunset there are some lower places we can go. But for mountaineering I would say that our area in South Tyrol is the best. For climbing we prefer Trentino and that area because the stone is just really awesome!
You’ve got a really nice van for travel, do you just stay in that?
Yes! We don’t really like camping, hotels, or hostels or whatever. We prefer to be really free and have our things with us. It’s really a home away from home for us.
What has been your favorite memory in sliding so far?
The junior championships in 2013 in Novouralsk (Russia) where I won gold. My other favorite memory is racing in Umhausen in the 2017/2018 season, where I won silver.
Do you have a race or event that you wish you could have done over?
Probably the 2018 Umhausen race! The ice had changed from day to day and it was just really challenging. That challenge threw me off a little.
Question from Josh Williamson (USA bobsled): If you could pick another sliding sport to have competed in, which would it be? What other sports would you play?
So this is a bit of a difficult question because I did try artificial track luge and trained with the national team and everything. But due to some various circumstances I went back to natural track luge. I do think my home is on natural track luge, though the really sad thing is that it’s still not an Olympic sport yet.
If I had to choose another sport all together it would be Equestrian vaulting. We had done that for fun together a few times and it would probably be that. It’s a pretty cool sport, there’s lots of adrenaline and focus involved!
