Sanremo 2024, Brignone: why he couldn't say goodbye to the injured Goggia

Federica Brignone gives applause on the Sanremo 2024 stage. “Skiing is music”

This time Federica Brignone enchanted everyone without skis on her feet: the Italian champion (third in the World Cup – which she won in 2020 – and capable of winning 24 races in her career with 63 podiums overall) took to the stage in the first episode of the 2024 Sanremo Festival with a black dress and a smile that conquered the Ariston theatre. Then she took to the microphone to launch Loredana Bertè's performance.

The artistic director Amadeus recalled the phrase, the nickname of Federica Brignone (“The Snow Tiger”) and a very beautiful phrase of hers on the discipline: “Skiing is music”.

Federica Brignone brought a gift to the stage: “This is my helmet, to carry something from my sport, but the skis and poles were too bulky,” said the 33-year-old athlete from Lombardy.

Sanremo 2024, Brignone: why he couldn't say goodbye to the injured Goggia (and talk about the Milan Cortina 2026 Olympics)

Many spectators expected a greeting or a joke about Sofia Goggia, the other Italian skiing phenomenon, who in recent hours ended his season early due to a broken tibia-fibula and she won't be able to return before next autumn – at this point it's unlikely she'll be able to win her fifth Downhill World Cup (where she was dominating, 89 points ahead of second-placed Stephanie Venier).

The reason was explained by Federica Brignone's manager. “Just a problem of time. Unfortunately they didn't even let her speak. Unfortunately these are television times”, the words of Giulia Mancini to Adnkronos.

The Italian champion had very tight deadlines and was in fact unable to even mention the Milan-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics as expected. While he was trying to speak, Marco Mengoni's joke came in and he intervened saying “I've never been on the snow, never been on skis”. Then the time to continue ran out (in the lineup there were only 4 minutes in total) since Loredana Bertè had to arrive on stage (then sensational and first in the evening rankings ahead of Angelina Mango and Annalisa).

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