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Jono Brauer (Aus)
Nov 03, 2009 / 10:30:39 AM
Australian Alpine ski team.
Disciplines: Downhill, Super G, Giant Slalom, Slalom.
Jono Brauer represented Australia at the last Winter Olympics in Italy. Image: Courtesy of Jono Brauer.
Jono Brauer is with out doubt a super talented athlete and skier. He's very well known in his native resort of Thredbo as an absolute charger on the slopes and has been all his life. He loves going big in the air and going flat out down the hill, groomed or otherwise. However it's in the gates and racing that he really shines. He is Australians Nr 1 skier across 4 of the 5 disciplines with Craig Branch, Nr1 in downhill, denying him a clean sweep.
Jono in pre-run trance, running the course in his mind before he even leaves the gates. Chile 2008.
However as talented as he is, he also suffers from a family trait, week knees and ankles. He has had 10 surgeries in all, and coming back from injury is almost a yearly occurrence. Get the bucket ready as you read this next bit, it is a gut wrenching list of injuries.
2 full ACL knee reco's,
2 patella tendon debrivments, basically slicing open the knee tendon down the middle, cut all the mush and dead tendon out so scare tissue to form and allow it to rebuild,
Torn MCL 3 times, once on one leg twice on other,
Snapped PCL, not repaired.
Snapped Achilles tendon, operation to repair,
5 Knee arthroscopy's for minor clean ups and repairs
Torn ligaments in both ankles, not skiing, from Mt biking and other activities,
Broken foot playing basket ball, coach took him out.
Squashed sciatic nerve,
Dislocated rib off sternum,
Cracked elbow, not sure how that happened,
Concussions,
Skier's thumbs, ligaments are shot from ripping back the thumb
Read the CHILLFACTOR SKI MAGAZINE article on Jono Brauer's injuries here.
Craig Branch and Jono Brauer will again shape up as the 1-2 punch combo for Australian Alpine Skiing come Vancouver 2010.
Q&A
Mountainwatch: How has this years rehab process gone.
JB; Pretty long and tough, I really blew knee to pieces this time, ligaments and some bone damage. Still it only took 6 months to get back on snow and I felt really good when I did. I was able to ski each day as long as I wanted, rather than having to stop due to pain.
I did a lot of gym work so was strong and felt really good as soon as I was back on snow, and with that the option to go train in Chile. After 5 days skiing I felt it was a good idea to go and be around the teams and action. I had 10 days free skiing on arrival got lots of mileage and made sure I was feeling completely comfortable and good on my skis again. I then had a good block of GS and a little SuperG training on the tail end of the Chile camp.
MW; How do you balance your training when injured, can you still increase a fitness base while rehabbing.
JB; Its tough, the last 7-8 years I've had to totally modify training from what is normal. I cannot do any power or Plyometric training (a stable requirement for ski racing) because the knees tendonitis really hampers me, because of this I am always a couple of steps behind the pack. However I have been working closely with NSWIS and AIS strength trainers and sports science crew and we have modified my training so I can do as best as possible in all areas. Skiing I can do no problems, but being 100% fit is always a challenge. Skiing has never been an issue as I have skied all my life so have lots of mileage to fall back on, it comes naturally. Usually within two or three turns I know if I am right or not. Gates takes longer to get the timing back. After a week or so I feel pretty good again.
MW: You had a massive wipe out off a jump in Chile a couple of years ago, what was the outcome of that fall.
JB; I pretty much walked away from it, I went up and skied the next run, well I tried, you gotta get back on the horse. I ended up with a big bruise on glut. I skied the next day but the muscle would not fire, when the pressure built up in the turn I would pretty much collapse. I ended up heading home early took about a month to fully recover.
Get vid link
Jon Brauer will be at his peak for the Vancouver 2010 Winter games.
Jono freeskiing at home in Thredbo.
MW: What about now, you will have a short lead up to the season, how are you feeling on the skis, what training have you done and what will you do in the lead up to the Vancouver Olympics in February?
JB; I leave on November 8th and have two weeks on snow training. Again start off with free skiing till I feel confident then get some good solid training under the belt. I am hoping to start racing at Lake Louise Canada November 25-29 at the first speed event of the season. See how I go.
MW: I assume there is not a lot of pressure for you to race early this season as the main goal is the Olympics for which you have already qualified, what will your likely race schedule be?
JB; Ease into most likely, but it's a bit of a catch 22 as the World cup circuit is the Bread and butter of our career. I have to see how I hold up physically as for sure this year's main goal is the games. My body will decide what will happen up to and post games. The toll ski racing has taken on my body has been major, however I would really like to continue if I feel good this year, so I still need to race as much as possible. If I get through this season health I will certainly keep going, if things do not go so well and I have to start managing things physically I will pull back from racing and put 100% percent into the games preparation.
MW: You are a Redbull sponsored athlete, have you attended their new training centers at all, explain a bit about them. (I asked this question as I heard in a interview this week that Women's world Nr1 alpine skier Lindsey Vonn trained there just recently.)
JB; I have not been to one yet, as we have a really good set up at the AIS and NSWIS here, being in a national team and structured sport we get looked after well and have lots of support on that front. However I know the Redbull centers are amazing. The main center is just out of Salzburg Austria at the head office of Rebbull and it's a massive operation. It has cutting edge technology and equipment for training, available are top trainers and sports science crew so its pretty epic. They tend to working more with the extreme athletes who do not have such structure in their sport.
MW: What are your goals for the Olympics?
JB; Top step is what everyone aspires to at the games, and its no different for me, a medal is my ultimate goal and that's what I will aim for. I proved to myself at the last games that I had a good chance in the combined event, (a single run of downhill and slalom) and I think that will be my best chance this time round, although with all the injuries I have not skied much slalom recently, just 10 runs in 3 years, again it depends largely on the body holding up and SL training takes the biggest toll on the body. SuperG is going well also.
Jono competes across all 4 Alpine disciplines; Downhill, GS, Super G and Slalom.
Jono Brauer Stats.
NickName: Jon
Date of Birth: 26-Sep-81
Place of Birth: Sydney
Birth Country: Australia
Residence Place: Thredbo
Height: 177 cm
Weight: 83 kg
Education: HSC
Club/resort: Thredbo
Institute/Academy: NSWIS/OWI
First Participated: 4
Years On National Team: 7
Career Highlights: Europa Cup win 2006, Olympic Games 2006, Nor Am win 2002, Australia/NZ Cup champion 6 times
Personal Sponsors: Head Skis , Redbull , Thredbo , Vonzipper , Skins , Huon , Ripcurl , NSWIS , OWI , Hamilton Island , slytech
Videos Of Jono
Jono's website: www.jonobrauer.com
tags: olympic, athlete, jono, brauer, alpine, skier, gs, australia, thredbo, downhill, super, g, slalom
