Defining Success

If I ask you about the most successful person in the history of our sport, I think most people would instantly say Chad Hedrick.  He was a 50 time world champion and carried that over to an Olympic Gold medal. Seems like the obvious choice.  But what if you think outside of the box.  What if I told you, there was a skater who could have a good skating career(not quite Hedrick's), but he would also start a skating company.  And that company would grow into a multi million dollar company.  He would continue to help the sport grow year after year, and would have the largest professional inline team in the world.  Matthias Knoll is the man behind Powerslide, and his name may not pop into people heads when you think about the most successful people in our sport... but it should.  The Powerslide logo is "we love to skate" and if you ever bump into Matthias you will realize "we love to skate" is his logo in life as well.  He eats sleeps and breaths our sport.  There are few, if any, people on this planet that have his passion for skating, this is an interview getting to know the man behind Powerslide.  

Tell us something about yourself, some facts and dates?

Well, I`m Matthias Alexander Knoll, born on the 16th of April 1969, in the hospital of bayreuth. Not sure about my very first years missed most of them it seems. I have had 2 parents so i think I was not picked up at lost and found. I started skating when I was 6 years. My father died when i was 18 years, just before I finished high school. Right after that I started to study, sports and economics which i finished when i was 24. In the same year I quit speed skating at a competition level and right after Euros I started Powerslide in 1994. I did not go to worlds anymore as it was the same time as ISPO trade show, where I needed to be. Before Powerslide I had my own little company, called ROLL KNOLL which I started in 1990. Now I`m 43 and I'm planning something special for 2013.

How did the death of your father affect your life?

To be honest it changed it completely. In school I was not a hard worker, even though I was quite good but I had my ways getting around....So my father always thought I will get nowhere. When he died I was in the final months of school with final exams, so not easy to get focused. My sister was already studying away from home and only my mother was left at home. So I had to take responsibility and act like the head of the family and lead the family and had to work hard. After school I was supposed to go to army, sports only for some years, train day in and out, but than I would need to leave my mother home alone. So i decided to start studying in my home town and working on the side, carrying out flowers, working in a concrete laboratory as now the money was way less than before, especially for things like sports. Studies, family, working and skating was getting too much as some point and I needed to find a way to make money, skate and study...so the answer was selling skates and equipment at races out of the car (which I had left from my father), the start of Roll Knoll.

How did it go on with Roll Knoll?

Well as I was already a marketing genius I called the company Roll Knoll, super unique and totally marketable...I was lucky to get the contact with Tom Peterson of Hyper. He helped me quite a bit getting started, getting goods and wheels and contacts and show me how things are done. I owe him a lot he was always been a big supporter as well as a true leader of the industry.

In 1989 everybody was still skating quads in Germany, I made hyper brand wheels in the first season from zero to 90% market share. I had all top guys, all my friends supporting me like Anne, Dirk, Andreas and co on Hyper and on Roll Knoll. Also the east part of Germany opened giving some good business opportunities. Later Inline came and all skaters had to change from quads to Inline, so another lucky change for Roll Knoll. Actually I was the first racer to win a race on Inline skates, the mountain / uphill / downhill race in Bechhofen back in 1991. Later in 1993 and 1994 Inline took all over and it became popular as a mass sport, so I made the decision to rename Roll Knoll to Speed Line.

Making Roll Knoll was good and lucky for me, I was able to race, finance my skating and I could even support other friends with material. Good old days which I really miss, selling out of the car...

Give us some hard facts about your Career?

1975 started to skate with 6

1977 Northbarivarian champion, big step hahaha

1978 Bavarian champion

In the coming years I was always regional champ and medaled at German championships, but never top, I was really the smallest and not strong at that time.

1986 German Jr Champion and also international podiums

1987 I think was my best year, I won all races in Junior with national records, 5 titles at the German championships, all races.

I also got already two gold medals at the German championships incl the 20k race.

Also at this year i set a new world records at 31:14 on quads and at the Europeans I finished 8th in the senior men race in Italy.

1988 my father died, I had a bad injury, stopped training, confused brain, changed the club I was racing for and the injury went on for 2 years until I decided to get surgery on my shins.

Two years without almost any races, the death of my father and all the other changes - all changed my mind and instinct a bit. I skated races now more for fun, trained more on bike and running than skating and lost the killer instinct…you need to win. But with the help of my friend Thomas from university he brought me back and even now I was training mainly alone it was a good step.

1991 I was German champion again, and since at time until I quit part of the national team, battled races out with Dirk Breder.

I got top 4 at euros individual races and gold relay medals like at my last race I did in 1994 were we got just beaten by 5cm from Italy but managed to beat France (with gravouil, Poireer and Giquel) and the rest of Europe.

What are the 3 races you remember the most?

Pamplona:

I was just 17, travelling to Spain with the national Team. The event was the same time as the start of the St Fermin festival. Pure parties everywhere on the streets, nice girls everywhere and we were some blond guys...so we went out to like 5 am and races started at 10am. To make it worth instead of playing the German national anthem they played a German x-mas song so we almost fell asleep again....races, yes we did take part and they were not too bad for me, but after the event the Spanish federation wrote a letter that they want to invite German again for this event but next time Germany should send a A-team and not farm team...also the car broke a few times, we were young and crazy and all was a bit out of control, but for sure unforgettable, but details can't be told...some stuff must be secret...otherwise....

Groß Gerau 1991:

German Championships, Friday evening, 20k, Drik and I were the favorites, Dirk was super strong in the finish so need to make him tired...so we and two other long distance guys attacked, and attacked and attacked, attack after attack went down and Dirk closed most of them, he became really tired and got cramps in his legs already. I felt great and still in great shape so i decided to wait for the final sprint till the end...but before I attacked Dirk came on the outside...what the hell was he doing...I was stuck behind one guy and dirk had some other guys in his draft...I got third in the end worst race ever, Dirk won, but was so finished that he collapsed after the race but had a big race....but than the `fight started´parents got involved and it turned out really bad, Dirk and me in the middle, we talked and we both were fine with the race it was hard but at no way unfair...but it was a mess.

Next day 10k elimination, and surprise it was me against Dirk for the last 300m and it came down to the final straight, it was close but in the end Dirk gave me the race, pushing me forward showing to all what he thought about the day before. This made us really good friends and every time following he had a chance to help each other in races we did...

worlds 1992

Worlds were in Italy, Rom, Inline and Quads combined. The road was difficult, U-turn, long straights and it was hard to find the correct wheels that works especially om=n Quads. Not for the German team, as we all were using Hyper Indoor wheels on outdoors, witch  doctors, wicked lips etc. The US guys with Derek, Dante and Tony thought we are crazy but ended up testing our wheels and loved them. so the German girls changed wheels with the US boys and vise verse as we did not get enough wheels....only problems was that all Derek, Tony and Dante were on team Labeda...the Us guys won almost all titles and we also got to know each other much better and all those three guys ended up in the Hyper team...as also tom Peterson arrived on the last day for the marathon and hocked them up with new wheels for the marathon.

So Hyper ended up with the best team and we got some new friends and with some of them like Dante and Derek i keep also still contact.

Also the Us boys helped us in the races, Derek let me go away for some points in the point races, a really nice guy and fair and perfect sportsman. when he became Olympic champion I believed that good people get back what they deserve.

Also Rome was my first Marathon ever and I finished 8th with only 3 dutch guys, 3 Us guys and Arnaud Guiquel in front of me...the dutch just had better technique and US boys with Derek, Tony and Dante were just a Class for them self at those days, so it was good for me.

what races did you like most?

Hard races, I loved uphill races and long races with breakaways, rain races...parabolic and slippery tracks I hated as they did not treat my shins well.

How did you get to know Stefan your partner?

Stefan is the brother of one of my best friends from school, Adreas (who is now married to Anne Titze, former world speed champion...small world). So I was hanging out quite a bit that their home of the Göhl?s family and often talked to Stefan. Stefan was also into sports, very good at track and field, sprinter and long jump, about crazy ideas. Also sometimes we trained together. after I finished my study I came with the crazy idea about Inline distribution to Stefan. He was not 100% happy at his current job and jumped on the idea. It started slow in 10995 and than in 1996 is exploded and than went down hard in 1997 and 1998. sow e had to make it through the good and bad times and learned how to run a business the hard way.

But you can ask Stefan himself to give you a interview...

Who are your all time favorite skaters?

For me, in my time, the US boys were outstanding 3 guys, all same level, everyone of those could win almost every race, Dante and Tony Muse and Derek Parra. All awesome skaters and great people. Dante was the most gifted skater and talented, he did not train as hard but had mad skills and is still a skater, but now aggressive. I really natural born skater unforgettable moves and races. Derek as a person and skater was outstanding, hard worker and this also made him Olympic champion on ice and he truly earn this success. He gave me his US suit in 1992 and 10 years later he singed it again, he suit is at the wall of the office possible my favorite piece of all medals, trophies etc. Also Arnuad Giquel had so much foot speed and acceleration of the corners, great to watch to see him fly and transfer to Inline. But here are so many others you cannot name all...Later for sure you had Chad, super human or Joey Mantia. I must admit, our two PS teams from Le Mans in 2012 are also big favourites of mine.

Any inventions coming along soon?

Besides the flying skates, square wheels, a skating robot that does also house work, a never stopping bearing, we are working on other cool stuff. Step by step we try to improve all aspects of skating and make every detail better from wheels, bearings, frames and boots and try to get more people in our sport and get them infected with the "we love to skate " virus.

How Big is your family?

well I got my wife Inge, but we are not married but living together since over 11 years. Maybe one day if nobody will ask me when I`m getting married we will marry, so when I`m 60 or so. I will think about it a bit more. we have a daughter, Amelie, 9 years, no speed skater, just fitness skating and playing hockey a bit with us. But she is a really good soccer player and I hope one day I can sell her to a famous soccer club and make money of her. Until than I still need to work for the Money.

So you need more money for Powerslide? Rumor is you spend too much money on skaters?

I know a lot of companies thinks that Powerslide spend too much money for skaters and teams and that we do not treat this as a business only. so yes those people are correct, if you only look at the numbers we spend too much, but I come from skating, I love skating and it gave me a lot, so i want to give something back too, to loyal and great skaters all over the world.

The Powerslide slogan is " We love to Skate". Why you have this slogan and what is your passion?

we own the road was our old slogan and it was nice, for racing but not really connected to skating. So our multibillion $ marketing agency proposed like over 1000 new slogans and we selected: we love to skate.

I think the new slogan makes a good point, we have so many people working at Powerslide that truly love skating and also for me it works perfectly. Skating was my past, is my presence and will be my future.

It gave me so much and it thought me how to work, train, fight and improve. its my love, I love to skate and the longer I`M in this business the more I love to skate...I think also about skating some races again...

what questions do you want to ask yourself?

when will you be satisfied?...my answer: I guess never, otherwise there would be nothing driving me forward and even you are satisfied with one thing there are lots of other little things that are not perfect...and technology also goes so fast. next to this the passion and love of the sport is also motivating me a lot, but at one time for sure I want to stop working,...maybe 50 or 55 or 50 or 65 or 75 or when ever it is time.

What other sports you did?

A lot, at University I had to do 12 different sports, soccer, handball, basketball, Tennis, Badminton, Ski Nordic and alpine, track and field, swimming, aerobics and...

But when i was young I did some cross country ski races (I did win locally...), I played handball in a team for 5 years, I did local bike races (not too bad either), I did play basketball at university team and I did ran 2 marathons under 3h, best one was 2:47 hours in Frankfurt in 1991. Also did horse riding and all other stuff, my father really made sure I did learn a lot of sports and taught me a lot, so i still love most kind of sports even my body is not in best shape anymore and I had a view surgeries on legs, knee and back. 2010 I plan a little comeback as the German championship is in my home town...so over 40 category...

What would you have changed in your life looking back, 3 wishes?

Well one day after our Powerslide time travel machine will go to mass production I would like to go back in 1994 to race worlds and then start powerslide only later, missed this event.

Also for sure more time with the family and friends would be nice and on my wish list.

Then I would love to travel the past, ancient Egypt, Greece or Rome and meet people of this time too.

Other things in life for sure I would want to change but I think we all have to accept good and bad times and learn from the hard times and move on, call it leaning by doing, destiny or whatever.