Alpine Skiingthe interview
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Today the first day of skiing for the blues at Copper Mountain; the Valle d'Aosta confesses to "Ski Racing", between the very difficult challenge in Shiffrin and Vlhova, to the enthusiasm that never fails to try to play it in almost all races.
Thursday 10 November 2022 6 minutes reading time
She is a “sparkling” Federica Brignone, despite the cancellations of Soelden and Zermatt-Cervinia, as well as that of the parallel of Lech / Zuers, have postponed the start of the World Cup season by weeks.
For the two-time Olympic medalist, directly at the technical competitions in Killington on 26-27 November, since Levi's two slaloms will not see Fede as the protagonist, flown together with her teammates at Copper Mountain (yesterday the departure towards Denver, where the blue they arrived in the Italian evening yesterday) for that training block of over ten days that will be fundamental for the entire season.
The slalom issue was one of the topics addressed by the Aosta Valley champion in the interview granted to "Ski Racing", a few hours before getting on the plane for Colorado, after having also experienced a special evening (Tuesday) in the event Armani in the company of Sofia Goggia and Deborah Compagnoni. Brignone will return to play a CdM race between the tight posts in Killington, the day after the giant in which she will aim for the maximum goal, she who on the "Superstar" has finished first and second in the last two editions (2018 and 2019). "Copper Mountain for me is always one of the best times of the season, it's really nice to train in that place also for the context, such as living in an apartment among us, since we are not used to this, touring hotels all season" .
Slalom, in fact: “Last week I did three days of training in fantastic conditions, practically more than I have been able to put together in the last two years in this discipline. I think it is stimulating, at this point in my career, to try something different and, even if my focus remains on giant and super-g, I also need slalom for the combined World Cup ”.
If we talk about the absolute cup, Federica does not hide while admitting that Shiffrin and Vlhova start in front of everyone in the prediction: "With Mikaela and Petra it is very tough, because they are much stronger than me in slalom and with a similar level in the other disciplines - the analysis of the first and only Italian woman capable of conquering the crystal ball, in 2019/2020 - I will have to be almost perfect all season, if I want to fight for this goal, but it is still my biggest dream, it is always been like that. I succeeded 3 years ago, so why not try again, even knowing it will be very difficult?
In the meantime, I think about showing up 100% at every appointment, always trying to fight with the best ones ".
The 32-year-old from La Salle had a problem in her left leg, in particular in the head of the fibula with inflammation of the tendons, which affected her practically from mid-May until late August, but everything fell into place when began to get serious on the track, or rather on the occasion of the maxi rally in Ushuaia. "It was stressful, I couldn't play sports like my usual for a long time, giving up playing tennis and more, but it finally resolved and, even though I was thinking of coming home from Argentina after a week, in reality it went very well ".
If the World Cup has always represented the main focus of the Brignone season, the dream of the first gold at the world championship level can only be there, within reach. However, the Courchevel Méribel world championships do not represent an obsession, also because "it is impossible to make any kind of forecast, you can be fit for those two weeks, or feel bad and have problems adapting to the snow and the context, look what happened to Mikaela at the Olympics.
I love Méribel, he is close to home and I can't wait to run a World Cup there, but what will happen is unpredictable ”.
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