Hubertus von Hohenlohe celebrates his 60th birthday in a small circle this Saturday. In Cortina d'Ampezzo, his girlfriend Simona Gandolfi will be there, this is the cousin of Alberto Tomba. Including her children, old friends, companions. "Nothing special", says the anniversary boy. "The big break comes in Marbella in the summer, with DJs, bands, really cool, and then I let it crack." Befitting.

But now in Cortina very modest. Yes, yes. Even with him.

Also among the well-wishers in Cortina d'Ampezzo is Werner Grissmann. The Austrian former rider had once betted at Hohenlohe premiere in the Alpine World Cup, the debutant would come at least ten seconds behind him to the finish. Use: five bottles of champagne. Grissmann lost, he underestimated von Hohenlohe. That was in December 1981.

Now Hubertus von Hohenlohe is still driving - and starting in Åre again starting next Tuesday, it's his 13th Ski World Cup. In slalom and giant slalom, as always for Mexico. He has no real chances to win, his best World Cup results are from the eighties.

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Hohenlohe at the Winter Games in Sochi 2014

He will travel to Åre by car, he has documented in a recent photo. In self-designed racing suit with skull design, a tribute to the "Dia de los Muertos", one of the most important Mexican holidays. Behind his vehicle, a Bentley.

Hubertus von Hohenlohe was born in Mexico City in 1959, the son of Ira zu Fürstenberg and Alfonso Prinz zu Hohenlohe. An iridescent celebrity couple of the time, which filled with gossip slaughter gossip columns soon. For the first ten years Hubertus lived with his father in his glamorous Club Hotel on Marbella, at that time the hotspot of the jet set. The high society went in and out, Sean Connery and Laurence Olivier, the Hepburn and the Callas.

A glittering glass bell, a distant ivory tower far from reality. In retrospect, von Hohenlohe says: "That was a surreal life." But is not it today?

The short time spent in a boarding school in Vorarlberg and beating practice could have been a hard school - the father had put him there at the age of ten, so that he does not like stupid thoughts from other drowsy bored boys in puberty, drugs and so on Hohenlohe then fell quite soft when an aunt took him. On her castle in Styria.

It was not enough for the Skiteam Austria

Today, Hohenlohe calls his "escape from the protected world" his motivation to become a ski racer. "I wanted to work something out for myself, achieve something myself." It was not enough for the Skiteam Austria. But there was still the option of his country of birth, which is why he now starts for Mexico since 1981.

Of course, von Hohenlohe had invested a lot in his ski career and trained a lot, with diligence, perseverance and self-discipline. "I went through the shit to get there," he says. What sounds weird then.

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Hohenlohe in Vancouver, 2010

Von Hohenlohe never had to worry about money because of his parents' fortune, today he either lives in Marbella, Vienna or Liechtenstein, he can afford the luxury of living his day and staging himself. Whether with his camera or in his own TV show "Hubertusjagd", in which he sends back to Servus TV from Saturday, shortly before half past five, starting today. Having a hard life going through the shit, that looks different to some people out there in the real world.

The universe of Hubertus von Hohenlohe is still the dazzling Schicki-Micki-Kosmos, whereby he registers with surprise a banalization of the Promitums. "If you've talked about the jet set before, then the style was chic and elegant with men and women who were beautiful, you used to see dolce vita on celebrity photos, today you see botox landscapes."

Crayfish and steak

He was really upset on Friday at the departure in Kitzbühel. When Otmar Striedinger raced to third place with start number 27, the VIP grandstand was almost completely emptied. "Everyone was already in the VIP tent and they ate their lobster and their steak," he enthuses, "a joke, disrespectful."

2021, the World Ski Championships in Cortina, that is still his goal, "where I learned to ski, then it's over". But because Hubertus von Hohenlohe has often announced his retirement with empty promises, he will certainly be back at the Winter Games in 2022 again, with 63, he would then be the oldest Olympic participant in history. The problem is, the games are in Beijing. Could be difficult getting to the Bentley.