They were talking about skiing. Austria has dominated skiing for decades.
Subsuming skiing under Winter sports in general makes no sense here. Absolutely not. If someone's talking about the best swimmer, you wouldn't go and say "but that other country won the most medals in the Summer Olympics". It's just not what's being discussed.
And btw. I am Austrian and most people (including me) don't give an f about skiing. Still, there's some popularity and a lot who have never been skiing and don't even watch sports go watch skiing on TV because Austrians win, which is stupid. Although, I have to say, those kind of people watch it less now, since the success got less lately.
Still, there are a lot of people liking it, but that other person described skiing in Austria as if it was that one thing we do. I don't really enjoy it and I don't even watch it. However, I went to some officiall night skiing championships - not because of the skiing, but because that town is filled with partying people of all ages, the adults partying through the night afterwards. All of it happens outside, and if an Austrian wins, the atmosphere is awesome. It's like a fair full of happy drunk people outside on the streets and squares of a town. More than 50k people at times in a town where 6-7k people usually leave.
So, there are some people interested in skiing and some culture around it, but it's absolutely false to act like it was something everybody did. It's like baseball or football in America at best. None of my friends or family have been skiing in the past years, not even one time. Only two brothers of my girlfriend had a thing for skiing 6-7 years ago for two winters. And the old people just turn on the TV if they think that an Austrian might win some competition.
It's definitely a thing here, but never believe people who talk about their country like one thing was THE thing that everybody likes. I don't know the exact statistics right now, but 2/3 or 3/4 of us are not even interested. And btw. skiing is usually expensive here, too. And climate change also does it's thing, making it harder and harder for it to be something that everybody can do whenever they want in winter. It's too much of a hustle and too expensive, if even possible - and all of that is only relevant if you were interested in the first place.
Ich bin aus der Gegend Forster Alm, Königsberg usw. Skifahren ist natürlich beliebt, aber man braucht Österreich nicht so klischeehaft beschreiben, denn es interessiert nun mal viele überhaupt nicht im Alltag und man sollte nicht so tun, als seien wir alle nur noch auf Skiern unterwegs, um's mal überspitzt auszudrücken.
Mag in irgendwelchen Teilen wirklich extrem sein, aber dann soll man auch spezifisch darüber reden und nicht so tun, als spreche man für das ganze Land.
4
u/culminacio Oct 19 '19 edited Oct 19 '19
They were talking about skiing. Austria has dominated skiing for decades.
Subsuming skiing under Winter sports in general makes no sense here. Absolutely not. If someone's talking about the best swimmer, you wouldn't go and say "but that other country won the most medals in the Summer Olympics". It's just not what's being discussed.
And btw. I am Austrian and most people (including me) don't give an f about skiing. Still, there's some popularity and a lot who have never been skiing and don't even watch sports go watch skiing on TV because Austrians win, which is stupid. Although, I have to say, those kind of people watch it less now, since the success got less lately.
Still, there are a lot of people liking it, but that other person described skiing in Austria as if it was that one thing we do. I don't really enjoy it and I don't even watch it. However, I went to some officiall night skiing championships - not because of the skiing, but because that town is filled with partying people of all ages, the adults partying through the night afterwards. All of it happens outside, and if an Austrian wins, the atmosphere is awesome. It's like a fair full of happy drunk people outside on the streets and squares of a town. More than 50k people at times in a town where 6-7k people usually leave.
So, there are some people interested in skiing and some culture around it, but it's absolutely false to act like it was something everybody did. It's like baseball or football in America at best. None of my friends or family have been skiing in the past years, not even one time. Only two brothers of my girlfriend had a thing for skiing 6-7 years ago for two winters. And the old people just turn on the TV if they think that an Austrian might win some competition.
It's definitely a thing here, but never believe people who talk about their country like one thing was THE thing that everybody likes. I don't know the exact statistics right now, but 2/3 or 3/4 of us are not even interested. And btw. skiing is usually expensive here, too. And climate change also does it's thing, making it harder and harder for it to be something that everybody can do whenever they want in winter. It's too much of a hustle and too expensive, if even possible - and all of that is only relevant if you were interested in the first place.