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| Sheer sporting pleasure |
| Archana Jahagirdar / May 10, 2009, 00:12 IST |
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BMW India president Peter Kronschnabl is an outdoors enthusiast, with snowboarding, football and running at the top of his list.
A hot, sultry day in the middle of the long Indian summer isn’t the ideal setting to talk about Peter Kronschnabl’s passion, snowboarding. But Kronschnabl, president of BMW India, is an affable host, and that takes some of the sting out of the heat. The air-conditioning is turned up to cool the living room while Kronschnabl, as the barista, whips up cafe-quality coffee with minimum fuss. As we settle down, Kronschnabl says, “I grew up in the Black Forest in Germany, and the first thing that parents do there is get their children to ski.” At age three, Kronschnabl started skiing. He pursued that interest seriously enough to be part of the ski racing team in school.
Snowboarding happened to him much later, when he turned 18. He says, “That was when I got onto a snowboard for the first time.” Snowboarding, he says, is a difficult sport that requires some getting used to, as one’s feet are fixed to the board and only the body moves. From that difficult initiation to now, Kronschnabl has become an enthusiastic snowboarder, and has done it in different countries from the USA to France, Austria, Italy and, of course, Germany. Some of these holidays have been more exciting than others. Says Kronschnabl, “The best snowboarding holiday depends on the snow.”
One memorable snowboarding holiday was around 10 years ago, when Kronschnabl went to Les Trois Vallees (Three Valleys) in France. There was, he recalls, one metre of fresh powder snow. On that trip, he says there were 26 of them and the double-decker bus they had hired to get to the destination had a bar on the lower floor. He says, smiling at the happy thought, “The holiday began from the moment we got into the bus.”
Kronschnabl, who travels frequently for work to Germany (BMW is headquartered there) tries to get in some snowboarding. He says, “In February this year, I went to Austria with three of my friends.” Such has been Kronschnabl’s passion for snowboarding that, he says, “From the day, I started snowboarding, I haven’t gone back on skis again. When you go fast on a snowboard, your body curves and you can almost touch the snow. It’s an exhilarating experience.”
Snowboarding, however, isn’t the only sport that Kronschnabl pursues with deep interest. He says, “In Germany, football is probably the biggest sport.” Given his citizenship, Kronschnabl, too, took to that sport early in his life. He joined a league team at the age of eight. “It was great fun. Parents would be involved and we would get taken to different cities for games. We would train twice a week before the match.”
Again, Kronschnabl excelled at the sport, captaining a team for one year before he took the decision at age 16 to stop playing in the league.
“I, however, continued to play with friends,” he says. In Delhi, every Saturday there is a football game in an embassy gym, and Kronschnabl is there as often as possible. “I try to play football two to three times a month, but since I travel a lot for work, it isn’t always possible.” Kronschnabl, who played as a midfielder when in the league, now says that during the Saturday game, there are no fixed positions.
Kronschnabl feels that playing football, in particular, and sports in general, has helped him in his work life as well. He comments, “While playing a team sport, you understand that you will never be successful if you don’t have a capable team. You also understand that not everyone you play with is going to be your best friend, but you know that you still need that person for his capability.” He continues, “You also accept that competition is healthy. If a corporate performs better due to competition, then the consumer benefits.” Kronschnabl says that at work he accepts and acknowledges competition.
In India now for almost three years, Kronschnabl isn’t able to pursue several of the sports that he is passionate about with the same regularity he did back in Munich, where he was based before being posted here. He says with a smile, “With it being more than 40 degrees outside, you can’t think of snowboarding, can you?” So he has taken to golf, though as yet with limited success. “In Europe,” he says, “you have the opportunity to do so many different sports that you don’t play golf.” Lack of practice would explain his 26 handicap in the sport.
The other sport that he continues to pursue in India is running. But again, a demanding work schedule has meant that Kronschnabl isn’t able to do as much running as he would like. He says, “I run the half marathon, but haven’t been able to do so in the last two years.”
However, he keeps in touch with running, in the summer on the treadmill and in the winter in the several parks that dot the capital. He says, “I always carry my running shoes, no matter where I am.” And then adds, “I am a very active person and if I don’t do any sport for more than two weeks, I feel unhealthy.”
At the same time, Kronschnabl says that his lack of sporting activity, while in India, isn’t something that he loses sleep over. He says, “I am a realist. I accept that
I am in a different environment and that I can’t do the sports I could in Germany.” A realist and a sports enthusiast: the perfect combination, a wise man would no doubt say, for happiness.
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