ItalyINTERVIEWS
Two degrees, one in physical education and one in physiotherapy. A Master in manual therapy, a certification as a trainer for the Gymnastics Federation of Italy, one for the Italian Weightlifting Federation and another still as an athletic trainer of the Italian Rugby Federation. We are talking about Matteo Artina, 33 years of Bergamo, athletic trainer of the two gold medals at the PyeongChang Olympics, Sofia Goggia and Michela Moioli. Behind this great goal for Italy, in fact, there is also the work done behind the scenes of Matthew telling Neveitalia his way of working and training outside the snow of Sofia Goggia and Michela Moioli.
Wednesday 7 March 2018 14 minutes reading time
How long have you been working for the winter sports world?
I entered the winter sports world when I met Sofia Goggia. In my life I skied a lot, it was an activity that I also did at a competitive level, but with very poor results. At the age of 18, I stopped skiing both because of injuries and for university reasons. But the ski ball has always remained with me because I grew up there. Destiny wanted me and Sofia Goggia to cross over and from there I returned to the world of skiing. I met Sofia Goggia when it was not yet Sofia Goggia. This is very nice for me because I saw a part of her that has never been seen in the spotlight, the part of her that is told so much but can not be seen. The part of her that is looking for her space, which is getting back into play, the most human part of the professional that is Sofia. I've been working with her for two years now and I've been working with Michela Moioli for a year.
Why did Sofia Goggia choose you as an athletic trainer?
We had a chance meeting. I go to a gym in Bergamo where I teach weight lifting. She was training in this same gym and one day she asked me for help to fix some technical details of the work on the bar. We also discussed some training visions and then after about a month that we knew each other he proposed to collaborate with her covering everything that was the world of physical preparation and I accepted.
What led Sofia Goggia to choose you as her athletic trainer?
This should be asked in Sofia. Perhaps he saw a different methodology of work. Probably even my studies and all that I have done over the years have led me to propose the types of exercises that are better fitted with the person who is her.
And Michela Moioli why did she choose you?
Michela has come to me through Sofia. Speaking with her, she highlighted some aspects of her discipline on which she wanted to improve physically and athletically, and Sofia advised her to have a chat with me. So we did a bit of work together that she really enjoyed. We found several points in common regarding the character sharing aspect and Michela, after having done a specific part of the jumps, also asked me to follow all her preparation.
Michela was reborn after the crusader injury. What work has been done to get to a gold medal at the Pyeongchang Olympics?
Michela I knew that the acute and post-acute phase compared to the intervention was already outdated. He had already resumed competitive activity at full capacity. Surely we have worked hard on postural and forceful physical aspects that could be improved. Posthumous to be arranged from the intervention to the crusader, he did not have any more. She was already trained. There were a lot of details to put in place, but I did not work with an athlete who was still recovering from an operation.
With Sophia instead of work was done to reach the gold medal?
Last year, we basically worked on using the body in a more coordinated and therefore more efficient way. This season, on the other hand, we focused a bit more on the muscular part and it was a work of high volumes, high loads, without forgetting the coordinative aspects. The first year we cleaned up this somewhat dirty gesture that I had, I was interested in putting a little load on the body, structuring it a bit more, so that next year we can go back to work on the dynamism that then is what in my opinion, it will be the focal point of his work in the coming years.
What are the strengths of Sofia Goggia and Michela Moioli?
The strength of Sofia is certainly the great attitude to work that has. It is really an athlete who works every day in the gym, never gives up, always gives the best. From this point of view, in addition to having a great availability to fatigue, which is a beautiful feature, also has an excellent attitude to always be very focused, to be very calibrated, never distracts, and this gives her the ability to do a lot of work. At the same time it has a very good muscular quality, especially from the point of view of resistance. And this is also something that allows it to do large volumes of work. Michela on the other hand has very high coordination qualities, she moves very well. She can do a little of everything, it's difficult for her to struggle to do something even if it's new. He needs to structure himself well from a physical and muscular point of view. Nevertheless it has a great quality of coordination that allows it to solve very well any work being done in the gym.
And the weak points of Sofia and Michela?
At this time both girls use their strength in an inefficient way in the sense that their ability to perform some exercise or training proposal they can do, but in doing so they misuse the body, in a much more energy-intensive way. This is something that must be resolved because knowing how to use the body in an efficient way means knowing how to solve with less expenditure of energy, attention, muscular commitment, heart commitment the moment of work that then translates into the snow in the ability to always have a physical and technical margin, to be always ready to react to the unpredictable because I'm always in full control of the situation.
How important is the physical preparation for an athlete of the highest level such as Sofia Goggia and Michela Moioli?
I think that physical preparation is essential because the opponents are all strong and talented. We can not assume that the difference for a victory makes it only one aspect, be it the technique or the physical. All have great qualities and skills. What really does a lot is the ability to reproduce the performance. So the preparation must allow the body to always be in shape. Whenever there is training, even in the snow, you need to be able to do it at its best because it is one more step to make the difference. And the difference at these levels is the details. Nonetheless, I always remain of the idea that the preparation is for a person to have the maximum performance of themselves during a race. But that performance can be fine even if the physical condition is not excellent. Competition performance is more easily influenced by a mental form. Physical work is essential to prepare properly for the season, in order to never lose the fitness state. But if we want to think in terms of race performance, the mental component makes the difference even more. So much so that Sofia Goggia and Michela Moioli were followed by the same psychologist, Lucia Bocchi. You have done a fantastic job with both, a job that I think has created a truly strong and tangible turning point from December onwards. I think that Lucia Bocchi had Sofia and Michela do that extra step that led them to be on top. Having the mental attitude in place is the most important aspect for the day of the race.
Michela and Sofia at the gym train together or separately?
Different work programs follow. It happened that they trained together. If we can do it, we do it willingly but we do not do the somersaults to make it happen because the work programs are different, it is not easy to follow them both.
What is the relationship between Sofia and Michela?
They have a beautiful relationship of friendship, among them there is a dialogue that touches a little 'to 360 degrees the life of both. They do not just talk about snow, skiing or snowboarding. This type of relationship they live very well even outside the gym. In the gym they talk, chat, but they can absolutely stay focused.
The merit of their Olympic gold medal is yours too. How will you soon do your work to keep them at these high levels?
We must certainly continue in this direction, we must think we have taken a step forward of a long journey. So everything we've done so far will continue. I will go even further into the details and most likely we will try to introduce new jobs. For example we will go to work even more on the air phases, on acrobatics. We will increase the amount of work on the track, especially to work on speed, explosiveness, dexterity. At the same time we will also find the way, in a different way, to do a little more technical work during the summer because they both found it useful.
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