Teen sensation Lara Markthaler takes South Africa to the Olympic slopes

South Africa has found unlikely momentum on the snow. The country has not sent anyone to the Winter Olympics since the PyeongChang 2018 Olympic Winter Games. This year, the country is sending five athletes, their biggest delegation in South African snow sports history.

Nicole Burger broke ground in Skeleton as the first South African to qualify in the discipline, Matt Smith qualified for cross-country skiing in just two years, Malica Malherbe will represent in the freestyle and 17-year-old Thomas Weir is up-and-coming in alpine.

Finally, teenager Lara Markthaler joins them, set to race the slalom and giant slalom.

Set in snow

Born in Munich to a German father and South African mother, Lara started sporting skis when she was 18 months old.

“My dad used to ski when he was younger, and so I didn’t really have a choice but to start skiing,” she told Daily Maverick. “[However], in the beginning, the plan wasn’t really to become a professional skier.”

When Lara was eight years old her family left Munich for Canada where Lara took up mountain biking. A natural athlete, she quickly excelled in the sport, and while living in Canada she racked up six gold medals in Red Bull’s coveted Crankworx competitions.

When Lara turned 12, her parents sat her down and asked what she might think about taking sports all the way, either through mountain biking or skiing.

“I ended up picking skiing,” said Lara. A major reason for this, she said, is because skiing is an Olympic sport while downhill mountain biking is not.

“So, when I was 12 years old my parents decided to support me on this journey and they ended up giving up everything again in Canada and we moved into the Dolomites for my skiing.”

With a rich skiing culture in the stunning mountain range in northeastern Italy, Lara and her family have become ski nomads, travelling around the Dolomites for training and races.

Despite being on the skis 180 days of the year and training six days of the week even in the off season, Lara still manages to find time for school. By spring she will call herself an Olympian and a high school graduate.

“I couldn’t imagine doing my sport without online school,” said Lara. “And even though it’s often quite hard, I remind myself how lucky I am [...] that the doors are still open for me to go to a university.”

A standout on the slopes

When it came to choosing which country to represent in her skiing pursuits, Lara felt South Africa was a no-brainer since she felt infinitely “more connected” to her South African heritage.

“I have a lot of family in Durban and in Joburg and also in Stellenbosch,” said Lara. “What would be very special for me would be to put South Africa onto the winter sports map.”

Cortina will not be the first time Lara will be flying the South African flag on the international stage.

In 2024, she was South Africa’s sole representative at the Winter Youth Olympics where she competed in four disciplines, placing a respectable 33rd in Super-G but failing to finish in the other three.

But she has only improved since then. In 2025, on the day of her 18th birthday, Lara performed a career best, placing 29th at the World Championships, qualifying for the Olympics.

“The top 30 marker is very, very important,” she said. “There were 115 girls racing, but only the top 30 will qualify and I ended up 29th.”

This race contributed to Lara’s overall FIS score, a scoring system used by the International Ski Federation (FIS). According to Lara, to qualify for the Olympics, she needed below 120 FIS points over five races to qualify and at the time of her qualification for Cortina she was sitting on about 40.

Today, in her stronger discipline, slalom, the pink-haired teenager is boasting 33 FIS points.

Last week, she further celebrated her debut at the World Cup in Flachau, Austria.

“It was an absolute eye-opening experience,” Lara said. “I have a lot of good momentum right now, especially in slalom, and [I want] to take that with me and have a good feeling going into the Games.”

“[Lara’s] had incredible success,” said Peter Pilz, president of Snow Sports South Africa. “It means a lot to our standing team. It’s a long process, it’s hard work, and these athletes dedicate their whole life to the sport.”

Spunkiiiiii at the Games

On 15 and 18 February, Lara will compete in the giant slalom and slalom, respectively. Other than her South African-inspired race suit, another way to spot Lara is by her trademark pink hair.

The pink was a random choice, she said, but she has become so recognisable with it that she does not foresee changing it. The spunky pink hair also suits her nickname, Spunkiiiiii – pronounced shpoonki, a German word without meaning, according to Lara, and since Spunki with one “i” was taken on Instagram, Lara settled on six.

“It’s become part of my brand,” she said. “I really enjoy being Spunkiiiiii.”

Coincidentally, the day Lara competes in the Giant slalom, she will also celebrate her 19th birthday.

If conditions permit, her dream would be to place in the top 30, just as she did at the World Championships. However, she is quite content going in for the experience as well.

“I’ll be one of the youngest, if maybe not the youngest ski racer in the women’s field, and so just really soaking up all of the energy, seeing all of my idols and being able to race them,” said Lara. “It won’t always be so easy, but it’s just, it’s so worth it.”

“It’s all due to those athletes being fully committed to the sport,” said Pilz. “Having created an environment for themselves that is enabling them to compete at the highest level and have the highest honour of representing a country at the Olympic Games… it’s something special.” DM