At the 1998 Olympic Winter Games in Nagano, he won the bronze medal in slalom.

After numerous knee injuries, Thomas Sykora was forced to quit his career and became an ORF commentator.

Later, he served as commentator in important men's slaloms (Kitzbühel, Schladming).

On most of the races he comments, Thomas wears a helmet with a camera to show the spectators the different routes of the slalom, and their difficulties.

After the end of his active career as an athlete, he decided to study mental coaching in Bregenz; he then graduated with an MBA.