The tears are gone. You poured a lot on Thursday. “I cried for three hours, non-stop – he admitted – and it had never happened to me in my life, perhaps because I had never lost someone so dear to me. But it did me good, it was a liberating cry. After a day devastating, I woke up with a lighter heart. Now I have a new energy inside me, a beautiful energy. Elena will be competing with me”.
Focused
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Sofia Goggia has metabolized the mourning: the news of the death of Elena Fanchini, who swept the national team like a tsunami on Wednesday evening, sent her into a tailspin, like all the Azzurri. But now she’s ready, focused, charged up again, to go and conquer the only success she’s missing: world gold in the downhill, she who can show off the Olympic one and three World Cups in the specialty. She who won four out of six races this year, and also took a second place. And that at the World Championships you have already slipped two medals, one silver in super-G and one bronze in giant.
Troubles and victories
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She’s the big favourite, no getting around it. Her last six seasons say so, despite being studded with injuries. Like this same season: the broken hand in St. Moritz, the slip in super-G in St. Anton, the one in the second descent of Cortina, the one in training last week on the San Pellegrino Pass sprint. Pains, doubts, worms, insecurities piercing her armor. And the need to keep a low profile in recent weeks: words with a dropper, few contacts with the outside world, even the need to go away six days, to Dubai, to find the winning mechanisms.
For the blue trio
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Minute’s silence before the start, during the last farewell to Elena in her Pian Camuno, then a thought for the former companion of many happy days, then down with mourning on her arm and bib number 6, at breakneck speed from the Roc de Fer, the track that so far has only spoken Italian: gold for Federica Brignone in combined, gold for Marta Bassino in super-G, and if hers arrives as well, we’ve already equalized the score in Sestriere ’97. Sofia is now talkative again. The last test-clearly the best time-gave her the answers she was looking for. “There are just a few details to sort out, perhaps to add that extra 3km/h of speed which can really make a difference in certain corners. But there are all the tools to do well. I found myself again. Lucidity, concentration, the desire to fly. I’m back at the gate of a World Cup (Sofia skipped Cortina two years ago due to injury, ed.). It’s every child’s dream, what more do I want? No, I really don’t feel any pressure. And if I ever hear it, I’ll try to use mine on the outside ski, which is the best way to drive away unnecessary pressure. The track? Beautiful. The biggest difficulty is being able to interpret the lines in certain turns, especially the longer ones. But I have everything in my head”. Go Sofi, the gold awaits you. And it’s gold that’s worth double.
February 11 – 08:03
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