Gian Luca Barandun prefers to follow the action as the words

Gian Luca Barandun was the big surprise of Swiss skiing last winter. (Photo: Peter Schneider / Keystone)

Last season he was one of the greatest climbers of the Swiss-Ski alpine team. At the beginning of the winter, only the initiates knew him, then the World Cup was followed by the 9th place of the combination of Bormio and the 15th place of the Wengener Lauberhorn descent – and only Gian Luca Barandun, aged 23 years old, is suddenly a candidate. for the Olympics. He would have gone to Pyeongchang if Carlo Janka had given up his knee injury.

Even without the Olympics, this winter should be very successful for Barandun. Second overall in the European Cup in the Super-G, he secured a fixed place in the World Cup. In the spring, he moved from Group B to Group A. The dream of my childhood from becoming a professional race driver became a reality.

Barandun had to fight harder for this dream than others. When he had to leave the National Performance Center East for reasons of age at the end of the junior period, he was barely enough to be admitted to a Swiss ski team. Only a private training group, in which the ski brothers Theo and Marie-Theres Nadig of Flumserbergen canceled a second chance, was able to recommend again one of the teams of the badociation.

And then there was the tragic death of his father a few years ago. With Gian Luca now the only man in the family, he had to help Präz am Heinzenberg's parental farm. And he realized that he also had to take his destiny in hand in the sport if he wanted to achieve something.

"Bari", as he called his friends, was the one who preferred to speak with words rather than words. In his message, he reminded the observers of Carlo Janka. Barandun was considered ambitious, precise, diligent and capable of biting himself. "And yet, he has never lost respect and fairness to others," says a former mate who was sometimes competing with Barandun. The uncle of Barandun, Peter, one of the vice presidents of the Swiss-Ski Presidium, said: "Beside the track, Gian Luca was well balanced and on his track, he always had for goal of getting on the podium "

Always in his free time, Gian Luca Barandun was in nature as much as possible. He was therefore a pbadionate beekeeper. On Sunday, Barandun was fatally injured during a training flight with a paraglider at Schluein.