On Saturday Ravnjak won the bronze medal in the half-pipe at the Snowboard World Championship in Kreischberg. His third run in the finals with perfectly performed combination of two flips and three spins carried him to the podium. He performed while sick, he was coughing and had a sore throat. Next day he also got temperature, so he left the scene of the world championship, instead of performing in two more matches, for which he had not anticipated great success anyway. Snowboarder from Velenje became 18 only in November last year, but he proved a very mature person. For MMC he relived the best moments of his career, and told many interesting things from behind-the-scenes of this sport discipline, which is much more popular in the USA than in Europe.

You had a lot of health problems in Kreischberg. What went wrong?
My problem is chronic inflammation of throat. Whenever I breathe cold air, I get a sore throat, especially after intensive training. Sometimes I even spit blood. I had the same problem before the Olympic games. There is nothing I can do, except to take care that I keep my throat as warm as possible.

You didn't get much sleep before the Saturday World Championship match…
Only four hours every night. I wasn't able to breathe because of coughing, I was sweating, had spasms. The lack of sleep influenced my concentration, and energy. But I was not able to take strong medicines because of doping tests; I only took pills for my throat, and Lekadol pills.

Have you considered the option of cancelling your participation?
Yes, I have. The situation was especially unpleasant during my training before the finals, in heavy rain. I was thinking whether it was worth the risk. But in the end I decided to perform – I really wanted to! Luckily the weather improved.

You must be relentless, and you proved that with strong will a lot can be done.
I think all the Slovenian athletes are fighters, at least I can claim that is true for snowboarders! We remain determined also in bad conditions, more than the others. We are used to training in less than optimal conditions, and never give up. I have been a member of the Slovenian national team since I was 8, and not a day has passed, regardless of the weather, without us training for at least a short time. It is the mentality I have been keeping to since childhood, and once you are used to poor conditions, you have advantage during competitions.

In the last race you succeeded with the perfect execution of the combination of two flips and three spins. What are the odds to do it right during the match?
The odds are good, although a competition brings pressure. In Kreischberg the combination was well done three times, in all three runs. In the first I decided not to overdo it with height, to be on the safe side. In the second run I tried to upgrade everything, but I failed. I was insecure and made some mistakes, which reflected on the points. But I got the positive motivation from the fact that Taku Hiraoka from Japan was only half a point ahead of me, as well as my Australian friend Kent Kennister. The Japanese and I are always very close in points, and quite often he pushes me out. I vowed it wouldn't happen this time, pulled myself together and eliminated all the mistakes; I jumped even higher, and my execution was really perfect.

What is taken into consideration by judges?
The amplitude of the jumps, the combination of the stunts, the execution of the combination, how you hold your snowboard, the style, the general impression, the riskiness of the jumps.

Are judges fair? Do snowboarders get angry with them at times?
It rarely happens. Well, at least I never had the experience that somebody was favoured by judges. In principle no such surprises happen. Anyway, you can talk to judges after the match, and they can explain their decisions. A meeting of judges and trainers is also organized before every match, and there judges explain on what they intend to concentrate.

After your great success you had to leave the world championship, although you had intended to perform also in snowpark, and in acrobatics. Would you have placed just as well in these two disciplines, were you healthy?
No, absolutely not, and it had not been my goal. For the last year and a half I have been concentrating only on half-pipe. The competition is severe, and it is very difficult to be equally good in several disciplines. Even in the largest countries the competitors are concentrating on one discipline only, and I see my future only in half-pipe, at least until the end of my competitive career. The other disciplines will come handy later, mostly for shooting movies and for other projects. But I should emphasize that I really like to compete in other two disciplines as well, after all it is great training for half-pipe!

What kind of shooting? Advertisements?
A career of a snowboard competitor is getting shorter all the time; at 28 you can hardly compete with 20-year old snowboarders, your body simply isn't capable of it, and the mentality changes as well. Some people then decide to shoot advertisements, or for other projects, e.g. documentaries. The good example is the last Oakley film, Snowboarding is for me.

As the fund of the Ski Association of Slovenia is rather empty, you are mostly funded by your sponsors. Do you get any money from the Ski Association of Slovenia?
Well, a little, but mostly from sponsors like Oakley, Red Bull, Yonex, Planetsports, Rogla, Renault.

You got a car from Renault for a year, at the occasion of your 18th birthday, and a video was made in which Clio was lifted 9 metres high, and you jumped from the trunk into the depth. How dangerous it really was?
Rather dangerous; in the first try I also hurt myself. The severe compression pushed my knees into my biceps; my arms remained numb for ten minutes, and I got bruises. The reason was that the landing slope was not steep enough. The increased incline reduced the pressure, and it became easier.

Do you like driving?
Yes, I enjoy driving. I drove myself to Kreischberg, as I had some errands.

But isn't it dangerous to sit behind the wheel of the car after exhausting training…
No, I don't find it a problem, driving relaxes me. But I most certainly don't get behind the wheel when I am really tired.

Do you know Matevž Petek, the only Slovenian free-style snowboarder with a medal from a world championship?
Of course I do. When I was only starting, he was the best snowboarder in Slovenia, and we met at the Celje hut, at the occasion of one of my first matches. I am also following his entrepreneurial career, and I encourage people to use his applications. He called me after the medal, and congratulated.

Where do you train on snow? Are the conditions in Slovenia good?
No, I spend less than a week in Slovenia. We don't even have a half-pipe. I spend most time in Switzerland, the USA, in New Zealand, in summer in France on glaciers. My favourite park is in Laax, Switzerland, and I have a match there next week. I also trained before the world championship in Laax. There everything is very well organized.