Emilie, you started your career as a cross-country rider. How did you get into mountain biking in the first place?
I rode mountain bikes for a long time without racing. I was on a bike for the first time when I was three or four years old. We rode a lot with my father. My grandparents live near Montpellier in the south of France. That's where I started riding mountain bikes properly. It's a very attractive area. You can ride great tours there, even technically challenging ones. I also had my first crashes there (laughs).

At what age did you ride your first races?
Maybe when I was ten. But only one. My father (Nicolas Siegenthaler) was team boss at Scott Switzerland and I always went along. I just rode with them once. I then rode one or two regional races. Someone once said to me that I should take part in the Stromcup, where the best Swiss riders compete. I rode there for the first time in 1997 in St. Imier. I went all out at the start. I came third and wasn't that happy. 1998 was my first real Stromcup season in the Rock category.

And how did it go there?
Yes, pretty well. I don't remember my position in the overall standings, but I had a lot of good results. 2000 was also a good year. I won all the Stromcups and I wanted to ride with the juniors. I also won Anhiebt in Lausanne. I was 13 then and realized that I was pretty good. Bettina Schmid, Nathalie Schneitter and Daniela Graf were also there. We were a good group and were able to push each other.

That's when things really took off?
Yes. The years 2001 to 2004 were actually always very good. Except in 2002, when I had Pfeiffer's glandular fever (Eppstein-Barr virus) for the first time. I had to stop and couldn't compete in the last race. I didn't do anything for two or three months and then started training again in December and 2003 and 2004 were really good years for me again. 2004 was the best, apart from the World Championships. I was Swiss champion, European champion and World Cup winner. I no longer felt the effects of my illness.

What was it like back then with the World Championships in Les Gets?
It was very difficult for me. Also because Nathalie won. I couldn't accept that. I beat her in almost every race and then, when I actually had to win... Sure, Nathalie rode a good race, but I didn't think it was fair that all the Swiss went to Nathalie. In the downhill now I realize that it's even more unfair. Things can happen so quickly and the best rider doesn't win. I learned a lot from it, but it was pretty tough for me back then.

You were fifth
. I was nervous the whole week. I couldn't eat, I couldn't digest. I had to go to the bathroom all the time. Everyone made me a little nervous. Everyone was sure I was going to win a medal. I couldn't handle the situation very well. That was tough. But things went well again in 2005. I came fourth at the SM and had top 30 results in the World Cup. That's pretty good for the youngest age group.

Then you decided to take up the sport?
I sat my A-level exams in 2005 and then I wanted to concentrate fully on sport for a year. And that's when these problems arose. I had glandular fever for the second time.

That's unusual for it to come back twice, isn't it?
Yes, it almost never happens. It can't actually break out again unless your immune system has a problem. My doctor diagnosed an infection, but my liver values were fine. I wasn't that tired either, only in the intensive area, during intervals or in races, when nothing worked. I didn't recover after a normal start, my legs remained sore.

At the time, you couldn't understand what was going on?
No, everything was going so well before. I thought, what's happening now? I wanted to make a breakthrough that year and suddenly something like this happened. It was very difficult back then. I didn't have school anymore, I couldn't ride. I didn't realize it at the time, but looking back I have to say I was in a really shitty mood. I could only focus on the negative things. I didn't have anything to be happy about. Then I worked in the Ride online store, the editorial office was still in Biel at the time. Thomas Knecht, who also worked for Ride, was my team boss and said you could work for us in the online store. It helped me to do something else instead of just being at home. I then also started biking just for fun. Then Thomas Knecht asked me why I didn't ride in the downhill championships in Bellwald. Or come with him to the Swiss Bike Masters Freeride. I rode there and won. It was really cool to be in race fever again. It was a mass start and I knew that.

That was your introduction to the downhill?
Thomas Knecht said you could have a Scott bike, a Gambler like that. I thought, that's cool, I can try riding the SM. I then went to a training camp with Sari Jörgensen. She also motivated me. A week before the SM, I visited the course with Thomas Knecht. I had no idea about downhill. Before that, I'd only ridden downhill on an enduro bike or my cross-country bike. You can ride much faster, but you can also crash much faster.

Did you crash?
Yes, I had a few crashes straight away and was already blue before the race started. But it was cool. Some people said Emilie could win. That's when it started again. I just wanted to have fun. Sure, I was a bit crazy. I didn't know how to do it alone on a track, I didn't know how to do it. They were pretty big jumps. At first I thought I wouldn't jump them, but then I just went for it. I'm not very scared and I have a lot of courage. Back then it was really cool to come second behind Marielle Saner, ahead of Miriam Ruchti and Daniela Bossard. I had the feeling again that I had achieved something and could make progress.

What does race fever mean to you?
There was a lot of nervousness, even on the downhill. But everything is different afterwards. When the race is done, the race is done. Everything is more relaxed in the downhill than in the cross-country. It's hard just before the competition, the nervousness is great, but only the time before the start. But everything is much more relaxed the days before.

Is that concentration for the race?
Yes. So many things happen in three minutes. You come down and every second a different image comes to you. It's such an awesome feeling to get a run down. When you feel like you're in control of your bike, the adrenaline when you make a mistake or go for a jump or after a difficult passage. That was all new to me. It's much more intense than cross-country. It's physically intense there, but there are also phases where you can relax. You also have to pay attention to the others and ride tactically. You can't ride tactically in downhill. You always have to ride at full throttle. That simply suits me better. I also realized that it wasn't good for my body to ride cross-country. My body no longer wanted me to push it like that. At the time, I was already thinking about starting cross-country again.

When you started downhill already?
Yes, I wasn't sure whether I wanted to do a World Cup season. It was also difficult for me in the downhill. I was five or six kilos lighter than I am now. I was already strong for a cross-country rider, but that wasn't enough for downhill. Then I started to train more on the downhill bike. My first season was actually quite good. Lots of crashes, but that's normal. I had to learn. I didn't know that you have to approach a slope slowly and not just shoot off on the first ride (laughs).

Is that your nature, to approach things like that?
Yes, that's the way it is. I still have to slow down on the first few runs. I have to be careful not to overdo it with the speed. The best do it that way too. When Greg Minnaar and Steve Peat go down for the first time, they make it easy. Floriane Pugin also does it that way. I learned a lot from her. I crashed last year and injured myself, that was a mishap. Crashes happen, Nick Beer also crashed and he doesn't crash that much. Sam Hill crashed. That's part of the sport. Crashing is normal. Whether something happens or not is a bit a matter of luck.

As with the cross-country riders, there are very different personalities in downhill riding.
With Fabien Barel, everything always has to be spot on, even with Aaron Gwin. He is very serious with his line choice, centimeter by centimeter. In contrast, there are riders like Danny Hart who ride much more intuitively. That's the good thing about downhill, you can be fast with any style. Greg Minnaar rides very differently to Danny Hart, Steve Peat rides differently to Brook McDonald. And yet they can be equally fast.

And you?
I try to ride clean, but sometimes I'm a bit too wild. I have more of an aggressive style. If you see a Floriane, she rides extremely cleanly. Even if she doesn't know exactly where to ride. Emmeline Ragot, on the other hand, rides much more wildly. But Floriane also has fewer crashes with her style.

You studied psychology?
I think it's important to have something on the side for your head. When the exams come in the summer, it's often not nice. In Switzerland, there is little understanding for athletes at university. They don't help us at all. In France, Floriane has a special program, separate exams and so on. I'm now going to Geneva to continue my studies in coginitive psychology. There is no sports psychology master's program in Switzerland. I have a lot of colleagues who have a master's degree and they still have to do further training to work in it. I would like to work as a sports psychologist, but I'm still happy to start working at the age of 30. I'm not earning anything from my sport yet. Floriane has ridden a great season, so she'll get a bit more, but it's not as much as Nathalie Schneitter gets in cross-country. My parents support me and have always done so, otherwise I wouldn't be able to do this, study and do sport. I don't do sport for the money, but out of passion and I know that I have to do something else on the side so that I don't end up helpless after my sporting career.

You recently appeared on Swiss television in the program "Sport erlebt". You said that it would be easier for you as a woman to love a woman in downhill than if you were a man and you loved a man. What did you mean by that?
That was a bit too short. The question was about the atmosphere in downhill, whether I feel more comfortable there because it's a male sport. It's a male sport, that's for sure. It's a bit too blatant for women. Maybe like ice hockey. That's why I said I have no problems with my lifestyle, because my family is also very cool about it. I always felt accepted. It was a bit more difficult in cross-country.

Really?
It was a bit more difficult. Now I'm nearly 25 and I just don't care what others think. I accept when others have a different opinion, but as a 16-year-old I couldn't accept that people didn't take me for who I am.

Have you made no secret of it either?
There was a lot of stuff going on that I can't tell you about here (laughs), but it was a big deal with other female drivers. I had secret relationships. It was difficult. When you love someone, you want to show it and not hide it.

And now?
Here on the racing circuit, everyone knows who I am, what kind of person I am and I feel accepted, especially in my team. We are all different, but like family. Some of my colleagues are into women, some are not. My team colleague Floriane has a boyfriend and I know she accepts me for who I am. It's an unmistakable friendship. I'm a very open person, I like to talk about my emotions, my experiences, with people I appreciate. Sure, jokes are always made, but that's just for fun. If you're a bit different from others - too tall, too short, too fat, too thin - then you have to learn to laugh about it. I have a girly side, but in sport you also have to be tough.

The fact that you brought that up on TV was planned?
Yes, they've already said that before, it would be interesting to address the topic. The show is more about the person than the competition. You know very well that athletes are very good at talking about their competition, but not necessarily about personal things. It was very difficult for me to get that across without being too blatant. It was edited a bit strangely, but they didn't want to make it too long. The question was about my experiences, whether there is discrimination in sport and I just said that it's easier in downhill when women like women than when men like men. It's exactly the same in football, where you can hardly come out as a man. There are also people who say there are no gays in football - that's ridiculous.

Did you say yes as soon as they asked you?
I thought long and hard about whether I wanted to do the show. I knew that they would address the topic. I thought a lot of people would watch it. But then I thought maybe it would help, even younger people. I also got a few letters from other women who said it was brave. I was happy about that. A lot of people only saw it as part of the show, but I was totally focused on that because that was the hardest thing for me.

Because it's also a bit existential for you?
No, not necessarily. It's just a part of me and I didn't want it to look like that's all I care about. I'm mainly someone who loves to ride his bike and I'm a friendly person. I might be a bit different in terms of sexuality, but that's only a small part. I'm glad that people have realized that sport is the main thing. But I'm also glad that I did it because it's an important topic in sport.

Show "sport erlebt" with Emilie Siegenthaler: www.videoportal.sf.tv/video?id=fb10bc01-8f21-41a2-b418-fdd947d46c55