sign in sign up
<<
Home , Deborah Compagnoni, Federica Brignone, Francesca Marsaglia, Giustina Demetz, Maria Rosa Quario, Marta Bassino

Patrick Lang’s Column

11th December 2019

LA «SQUADRA ROSA» C’È! THE STRONG ITALIAN TEAM!

The winners’ list of the numerous World Cup stages organized in since 1967 – many part being of in the prestigious Arlberg-Kandahar “Classic” – really is impressive… Most of the stars and “Skiing Legends” from the 1960s until 2016 excelled on the various slopes of the Vialattea which also hosted thrilling medal events back in 1997 (FIS World Championships) and 2006 (Olympics), without forgetting the exciting World Cup Finals in 2004!

Among the winners on the women’s tour one can find the name of two Italian aces - who enjoyed a memorable win in downhill in March 1967 (sharing first place with ’s exceptional ) while won a slalom later on in 1983!

In January 2020, a group of specialists of the “Squadra Rosa” will surely be fighting hard to claim the first Italian victory in a World Cup race on the challenging G. Agnelli course, 23 years after the gold medal triumphs of in both tech events of the FIS World Championships.

Interestingly enough, there are several Italian candidates ready to strike as shown by the results of the first competitions held in and North America, where four Italian champions celebrated a brilliant victory and several podium finishes in three different specialties – giant slalom, downhill and Super-G.

At Killington, 23-year-old enjoyed her maiden World Cup victory after two blistering runs. She beat all the top favorites including her teammate , USA’s , Slovakia’s World Champion Petra Vlhova or France two-time World Champion – quite impressive! The athlete from Cuneo / Borgo San Dalmazzo couldn’t have done better…

A few years ago, Marta already proved her promising talent with dazzling podium results in challenging races as San Vigilio, Soelden and Aspen after capturing a promising gold medal at the FIS Junior Worlds at Jasna, Slovakia, back in 2014 - a month before becoming at only 18 Italian champion at Livigno!

In Lake Louise her teammates and also confirmed that there really is a strong and complete Italian women’s squad on the tour now, reaching the podium in Super-G and downhill. Olympic Champion , 2nd in Sestriere in 2016 and 3rd at the FIS Worlds at St Moritz in 2017 is also slowly finding back her best form as demonstrated at Killington and Lake Louise. In the next weeks, the Italian leader from surely should move-up in the ranking to hopefully belong to the group of favorites at Sestriere in January 2020.

So far, the “Valanga Rosa” has been the only team able to reach several podiums with four different athletes in recent weeks – against three for Austria and two for Switzerland. With nearly 300 points, the group is in fact leading the giant slalom team standings after Killington with not less than seven skiers in the points!

Federica Brignone showed in the slalom at Killington that she can also ski fast in that specialty – a top-10 result was possible for the 29-year-old racer from Val d’Aosta… In case of a possible victory at Sestriere, she would imitate who celebrated a remarkable victory at Kitzbühel many years after his dad Christian!

With a total of ten World Cup victories in three different specialties and two medals at Olympics and FIS World Championships, “Fede” already improved the record of four slalom wins by Maria Rosa in the late 1970s/early 1980…

She definitely has the potential to battle for the GS globe this season with Shiffrin, the defending GS World Cup champion… It surely represents one of her main goals this winter… It would allow her to emulate Switzerland’s , one of her role models when she competed in her junior years. In 2001, during the FIS Worlds at St. Anton where she clinched her second gold medal in the event, the cute Swiss me one her racing suits that Maria Rosa asked her to hand over for her young daughter who admired her – I can imagine what it must have meant to young “Fede” at that time…