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Our Compagnoni Day continues, to celebrate the half century of the Valtellinese champion's life: the first time at the Games will remain forever in everyone's mind, with the gold in the super-g and the cry of pain the next day.
Thursday 4 June 2020 10 minutes reading time
Three unique trips, three legendary Olympics for three golds (and a silver for only 6 cents ...) that led her to the legend of world skiing, the only woman to win a title in three different editions of the Games.
Deborah Compagnoni arrived in Albertville in 1992 thanks to her first success in the World Cup, obtained three weeks before in the Morzine super-g, but she is to be considered a simple outsider in front of the big favorites, who answer the names of the hostess Carole Merle , a very young Katja Seizinger and the World Cup dominatrix, Petra Kronberger, who will win the third consecutive absolute crystal ball that year.
Debby is a portent in speed, but the serious physical problems accused from a very young age can only cast doubt on his possibilities in an event like the Olympics; Well, postponed for 24 hours due to adverse weather conditions in Méribel, which hosts the speed races, the women's super-G is held on the same morning as the men's Olympic giant in Val d''Isère. It will become a legendary day, on February 18, 1992, with Alberto Tomba for the third time gold at the Games after Calgary's brace, and a Deborah Compagnoni simply dominant in his first Olympic time.
In the head there is the most awaited woman, Carole Merle, when with the bib number 16 it's the blue; already a couple of tenths of an advantage at the first intermediate, after 30 seconds of the race, they turn on the alarm in the finish area, which becomes a sports drama for the French when Deborah passes the central section like a missile, reaching 1 "29 all '' last survey, up to trim 1 "41 to a stunned Merle. It is the birth of a star, there can be no doubts after all that has passed and has been able to overcome, painting a masterpiece in the most important race of the four years. Seizinger will be bronze at 1 ”97, Kronberger off the podium for a penny, demonstrating that all the favorites are there, but far from a champion who has finally found a way to demonstrate an extraordinary talent.
Yet, joy lasts only 24 hours: on February 19 the giant runs, again on a splendid sunny day and with Compagnoni clearly among the most anticipated, also because among the wide doors he had already obtained the first podium in the World Cup, two months earlier in his Santa Caterina Valfurva. The starting bib is n ° 14, but 15 seconds of the race in the first heat are enough to meet again the mocking destiny, with an inclination that brings the blue to load too much the left leg and that healthy knee (Debby si the right (four years earlier) was destroyed) which gives way.
Deborah bends over, holds her left knee strong and shouts, a loud "ouch" cries out loudly, before collapsing on the ground, who will forcefully enter the homes of every ski enthusiast, and in particular of millions of Italians who from that day on they will love even more. The anterior cruciate ligament is blown, the dreams of the golden bis vanished but, above all, a career again in danger just when the star was born, in the magical super-g of the previous day. The race will then be clearly won by Pernilla Wiberg, while Deborah's greeting at the Albertville Games brings her directly to the clinic in Lyon, for the operation carried out by Prof Chambat, who had already operated on it in the past.
If the return in the 1992/93 season sees the Valtellinese return to success in the World Cup, again in the super-g of Morzine, it will be necessary to wait for the 1994 Lillehammer Games, anticipated by two years to avoid the concomitance that will no longer be such with the Summer Olympics, to review the real Compagnoni treat yourself to another triumph with five circles. Deborah arrives in Norway with three giant successes in the cup year, but now the speed has to be put aside to avoid trouble with two knees in those conditions. In super-g he is 17th, on the day when Isolde Kostner gives himself a fairytale bronze at even 19 years old. Nine days pass and, on February 24, the rebirth is definitive on the snow of Hafjell: the bib is the same as the dramatic Olympic giant of two years before, or No. 14, but this time there is nothing to stop it. In the lead after the first heat, Debby also dominates the second and ends with 1 ”22 on Martina Ertl (who at only 20 years old will then win his first race in CdM the following month) and 2 net seconds on Vreni Schneider, with Anita Wachter and Carole Merle off the podium (and Lara Magoni seventh). On February 26, Deborah's second Olympic adventure will end with the slalom, where she comes tenth on the big day of Schneider herself.
Just between the narrow posts, four years later the blue champion will touch the third Olympic title in three different disciplines; on February 19, 1998 in Nagano, in fact, it seems made when Deborah concludes the first heat with the beauty of 60 cents ahead of Hilde Gerg, second halfway through the race. The margin will not be enough, with the blue losing gradually and being mocked by the German for only 6 cents. The next day the giant has to run and the Compagnoni will then confess that he "feels obliged to win". Pressure? Macchè, Debby flies like an angel already in the first heat and in the second one he increases again, intermediate after intermediate; will arrive at the finish with 1 ”80 on Alexandra Meissnitzer and 2” 02 on Katja Seizinger, not really the latest arrivals.
It is an Olympic trio and, just that February 20, Deborah Compagnoni's last victory. The perfect closure of the rim.
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