At just 22 years of age, Juan Carlos Molina has become - thanks to a daily struggle and by making a lot of sacrifices - one of the top skiers on the European continent. Born in GRANADA (Spain), his love of skiing runs in the family: his father works in the Winter Ski Resort of Sierra Nevada (Granada) and his brothers constantly encouraged him to get the gear together and enjoy the speed and the freedom of skimming over the snow. In Baqueira, "O Rei Juan Carlos" literally swept the board. He has been deeply involved in this exciting sport for six seasons - 5 years - now. A retinitis pigmentosa, when he was 17, obliged him to modify his habits and everyday behaviour. However, as he told us, his family has always been, and still is, his greatest support. His list of achievements is really amazing: He has come first or second in all the national championships in which he has competed to date. In the recent II European Championships he swept the board, coming first in all three events (slalom, giant slalom and super-G) in his category - B2. As for the World Championships held last year in LECH (Austria), he came first in both the downhill and the supergiant slalom. And to round off this brilliant and surprising success story, he won the gold medal in the downhill event and the bronze in the supergiant slalom at the last Winter Paralympic Games, held in the French city of ALBERTVILLE in 1994. But Juan Carlos practises other competition sports. At the Atlanta Games, he participated in the Spanish Paralympic Tandem Cycling team, but Lady Luck did not smile upon the Spanish riders and they came home with their pockets empty. They did, however, have the satisfaction of knowing that they had performed well because "the standard was really high", as Juan Carlos admits. Despite his age, he is well aware of what he is doing. As he declared to us, "I'm not going to make a living out of sport". He has just finished his physiotherapy studies and has already received his diploma. For the time being, that has opened up the possibility of seeking work in public hospitals or private health centres. QUESTION: Judging by your sporting record, you are about to become the Spanish ALBERTO TOMBA. Have you set yourself a maximum goal as regards skiing? ANSWER: Right now, I'm really happy with the results of these European Championships. I plan to continue practising and enjoying skiing as long as my body is up to it, but the principal conditioning factor is whenever my work will permit me. As things stand now, having finished my studies to become a physiotherapist, I now have another major goal, which is to find a job. Q: Why did you opt for skiing, when you already practised other competition sports such as tandem cycling or athletics? A: The blame - in inverted commas - has to be laid on my family. It's not that there's a history of great skiers in our family, but there were some and my family is really keen on skiing, and that's something that is passed on with great ease. Q: Throughout all these years, have you had to make many sacrifices because of skiing? A: Yes, no doubt about it. But it has all been worthwhile. In addition, all the training is made much more bearable thanks to the support - I must insist yet again - of my family; and also - this is most important - thanks to my guide, José Luis Alejo. Q: All you skiers consider the work of the guides to be absolutely fundamental. How does it affect your successes or failures? A: To tell you the truth, the guide is our "better half", to use a humorous term. It is the guide who sets the pace of a race. Can you imagine Carlos Sainz without Luis Moya (the famous Spanish car rally team) as co-driver? Well, it's the same for me, without wishing to draw comparisons, of course. Q: In the strictly competitive field, what do you think of the standard of the participants? A: First of all, I'd like to say that the organisation of the Championships was practically perfect. And I only qualify it like that because I'm not one for talking in absolute terms. As for my colleagues, I must say that the standard was really excellent. These Championships have given me a point of reference, and clearly demonstrate that you cannot rest on your laurels, and that the time when you dominated a certain category is long gone. It is often the case that you have no specific knowledge of your rivals. For instance, in the forthcoming Winter Games, to be held in NAGANO (Japan) in 1998, I shall find myself up against more than one skier I don't know. To sum up, you have to train a lot and train hard. In my case, I must take advantage of my youth and, especially, my craving to win. Q: IBSA has made a great effort to promote these Championships, to the degree that, as was the case for the European Athletics Championships in Valencia (1995), an advertising campaign was launched in all the news media. What do you think of all this promotional work? A: I think it's fantastic, truly an example to be followed by other federations, where resources permit. Look, everything that has to do with promoting this sport, in particular, and that of the disabled, in general, will lead to the general public being much more aware of what we are capable of. During the Championships, at the start and finishing lines, there were numerous anecdotes about the spectators and the comments they made, along the lines that they came to watch the events but could not bring themselves to believe that a blind person could really ski. There was more than one spectator who thought it was all a sham. Why? For the simple reason that these people had never before attended an event of these characteristics. The news media must begin to understand that we too can offer spectacular events. I'd also like to add that the visit of HRH the Infanta Cristina was a really nice gesture. Her presence here was a pleasant surprise because we normally have a rather distorted image of certain public figures. In this case, as I say, HRH demonstrated an unassuming manner and a truly praiseworthy interest in this field. The Spanish skier overturns all the predictions.