Oberhof (from our correspondent) – He didn’t make a dent in the world as a competitor. He peeked into the World Cup five times, not once in the top 50. But when he hung the cross-country skis with a gun on a nail, he was contacted by the Fischer company asking if he would like to work for them.
“I was already interested in skiing as a competitor. It often happened that they drove well or badly, and I didn’t know why. I was tempted to get into it,” he explains. He worked for a ski manufacturer for eight years, then was head of the Austrian service team for ten years, before moving to the Belarusians, who for obvious reasons now have a crush on racing.
The Czechs hired him mainly because of his knowledge of the structure of skis. “Mainly grinding is my strong point. There aren’t many people who really master it, and I’m happy to be one of them,” said 42-year-old Eder after the Czech team’s training in Oberhof.
Even small details on the slide can spoil the race. Eder carries a self-made grinding machine with him. “But the most important thing is the person who serves it anyway. The wetter the snow, the coarser the structure must be. But there are many variations of it, the other part is manual grinding, it’s an endless process,” he says.
Together with three colleagues from the service department, who are supplemented by coach Zdeněk Vítek in Oberhof, they prepare their skis six hours before the race, and finish five hours after it. Especially when there are two races in one day like on Sunday. “There we had maybe 50 minutes between them, there was no time to test the men’s fighter, we had to make it in the morning. Fortunately, the conditions haven’t changed much,” he sighed.
Experienced professional
The racers themselves are in the service truck or welcome cell. “We don’t completely deal with our daily work and what we delete. Rather, their feel and speed of the skis. Only through feedback can we improve,” says Eder.
A frequent guest is, for example, Michal Krčmář. “During my career, I have met a lot of servicemen, and for us it is a very sensitive topic to evaluate skis when they fail. But I don’t feel this at all with Beni. He is an absolute professional and you can sort out anything possible with him. It can be seen that he has countless experiences and this has moved our service forward enormously,” praises Krčmář.
Eder can also tackle biathlon at home, his Finnish wife Mari (née Laukkanen) is the winner of two WC races and also competes in Oberhof. “They deal with the skis with the Finnish service, which works well. Then he tells me if they were good or bad. It’s nice for me to have some comparison. And of course it’s also great that we can meet during the season,” he appreciates.
