Cortina d’Ampezzo (Belluno), 23 January 2022 – The Italian flag is still flying at the foot of the Tofane. On the Olympia, which yesterday, Saturday 22 January, had seen the victory of Sofia Goggia, it was another Italian skier, Elena Curtoni, who lined up the rest of the athletes. The day saw the presence of Fisi president Flavio Roda, the managing director of Milano-Cortina Vincenzo Novari and the Sports Under-Secretary Valentina Vezzali. The Italian girl from Valtellina, wearing number 5, was the strongest and won her second World Cup victory after her success in January 2020 when she dominated the Super-G in Bansko, Bulgaria, on a day when the podium was monopolized by Italy, with Marta Bassino second and Federica Brignone third. In Cortina, Elena Curtoni beat Austrian Tamara Tippler by nine hundredths and Swiss Michelle Gisin by 24 hundredths, giving the Italian Winter Sports Federation victory number 301. Federica Brignone was 8 hundredths off the podium. The top five was completed by Switzerland’s Corinne Suter, while the American Mikaela Shiffrin, leader of the overall Cup, finished 16th, 1″01 behind.
Sofia Goggia, on the other hand, left everyone in suspense: eagerly awaited after her success yesterday, she had a fall in the “Scarpadon” downhill section, suffering an injury to her left knee.
THE VOICE OF THE PROTAGONISTS – “I’m happy with how I skied, I did an almost perfect race, pushing from the beginning to the end in a very technical super-G,” said the winner Elena Curtoni, who climbed from third to second place in the specialty ranking, with 348 points, behind Federica Brignone (377) and ahead of Sofia Goggia (332). “I put my creativity on the slope, I felt free. It is something special to win in Italy and do it in front of my family.”
“The happiness is tinged with bitterness for Sofia’s fall,” Curtoni concluded. “I hope that it is nothing serious and that she can be back on the slopes as soon as possible.”
“Today’s second place is an important result also in view of the Olympic Games, I am very happy about it,” said the second placed Austrian Tamara Tippler. “I probably lost the 9 hundredths from the first place in the upper part of the slope, at the start I was not among the best. I wish Sofia Goggia a quick recovery“.
“It’s a wonder to ski here and to ski at this level,” said Switzerland’s Michelle Gisin, who finished third. “The mononucleosis has given me a lot of problems but despite this I am managing to finish in the top positions in all specialties. That’s not bad at all.”
“It was a difficult Super-G to interpret, and I didn’t trust it,” said Federica Brignone, fourth place. “The way I skied, I don’t deserve the podium. But Elena was very good at attacking, hats off to her.”