At my age, you need to verify that everything is fine. I put a lot of pressure on my body, and I feel sometimes pain in my back and in my knees, so I have to be sure that I can keep on training hard before going on.

I lost races because I wanted too much to win them in beating my rivals.

It's good to ski for fun, but I still want to win races as often as possible.

Franz Klammer was my great idol in my younger years.

For the moment, the snow is quite wet and soft. If it was hard or icy, it would be a perfect downhill for my style, because I could fight even harder.

When you have won everything in your career, what's left? Why go on?

I planned to stop in 2002 after the Salt Lake City Olympics. I felt able to remain competitive another four years, and I wanted to stop while I'm still at the top.