Nino Schurter visits Namibia 

Nino Schurter, the greatest MTB cross country racer in history was a special guest at an informal gathering of the Namibian cycling fraternity at Cymot Hilltop on Monday.

The 38-year-old Swiss legend was on a first-ever visit to Namibia with his girlfriend Malene Degn, who is also a world class MTB rider and multiple national champion of Denmark.

Schurter won the MTB cross country world championship on ten occasions between 2009 and 2022, while he also won the overall UCI World Cup on nine occasions between 2010 and 2023. He won the gold medal at the 2016 Olympics in Rio, the silver medal at the 2012 Olympics in London and the bronze medal at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.

On Monday, he took time out to meet fans, to talk about his career and answer some questions.

“I have a longstanding connection with Africa since 2006 when I went to a training camp in Stellenbosch for the first time. I love Africa and now I had my first chance to travel though Namibia and eveything we saw, from the landscape to the people that we met, it was all very cool and a pleasure to be here,” he said.

“Coming from Europe, its all so different here, to see a national park like Etosha,” he said, while Degn added that her highlight was visiting Sossusvlei. 

“Sossusvlei was a highlight for me – it’s so different to anything I’ve seen in Europe, we don’t have anything like it,” she said. 

Namibia’s Olympic great Frank Fredericks was also a special guest at the event and joined Schurter under the spotlight to answer some questions. The group chairman of Cymot, Axel Theissen wanted to know how they felt just before the start of a race and the two sporting greats had contrasting answers.

“You train for years and years and when the moment arrives you don’t even see the crowd – there were 80 000 people but I didn’t see anybody. You go into a tunnel vision and you make sure that you don’t make a mistake, you dont want to have a false start because all the hard work that youve done for four, eight or 16 years will be lost through just that one mistake by jumping the gun,” Fredericks said. 

“You focus and you believe, you think of all the people who helped you since you were 12 years old, who drove you to training, so you think of all that and you just want to go out there and do your best,” he added. 

Schurter said the start was a bit different for him. 

“The start is not the same for me because it’s a longer race, but it’s the same in the sense that you did all the preparation and then you are on the stage and you can’t turn back, so you must just focus. Sometimes I’m a bit scared but I also enjoy those moments, because it’s quite unique to feel the pressure and excitement, seeing the spectators around you and then just trying to focus and get into this tunnel and hopefully don’t slip on the peddle when you start to race. If you make a mistake you have 90 minutes to correct it, but the start is still quite crucial,” he said. 

When asked what his greatest achievement was, Schurter said it was his victory at the UCI MTB Cross Country Olympic World Cup on his home course in Lenzerheide, Switzerland last year, when he set a world record of 34 World Cup victories. 

“I think the moment when I won the world cup at home in Lenzerheide, having a huge crowd, everyone was screaming for me and having my daughter at the finish line hugging me, that was for sure my proudest moment,” he said. 

Regarding his training regime he said it’s very demanding, but very rewarding. 

“It’s different for different athletes, but I mostly train twice a day, I do either the gym and cycling or running and cycling, and I train six days a week. Then I have one day off, I do that almost the whole year through except for three weeks vacation which I’m having now, so it needs a lot of commitment. As an athlete you can never take time off, it also matters what you eat, how you rest, what you do in between, so it needs a lot of commitment, but it’s a beautiful path and all the hard work will eventually pay off,” he said.