Alpine Skiingthe interview
Sofia told herself in the interview with Dario Puppo and Massimiliano Ambesi: "The Yanqing track helped me a lot, but I didn't know how to do it until the first test. There is never anything normal in my accidents, but I want stability towards next season ".
Saturday 26 March 2022 7 minutes reading time
An exclusive interview, in the Discovery-Eurosport studios, literally with an open heart in front of two journalists like Dario Puppo and Massimiliano Ambesi (complete interview available on the Eurosport website and, in the coming days, also in the programming on the linear TV channels European).
Sofia Goggia retraced her last, unique, painful and at the same time wonderful season on the fastest skis of the Pink Avalanche: from 6 World Cup victories in the first part of the year, with the domination at Lake Louise where she signed a historic hat-trick, up to the injury in Cortina and the prodigious silver in the Olympic descent of the Beijing 2022 Games, concluding it all with the conquest of the third crystal ball in the discipline most dear to her. "It was the strangest year of my career, in which I reached my peaks in every sense, from top to bottom - says the Bergamo champion - What I experienced at the end of January was a nightmare , but the affection shown by the Italians made me very proud, because it means that you have left a mark in addition to the results ".
There were 23 days that divided her from the injury in the super-g in Cortina to the Olympic descent: "Paradoxically, it would not have been strange if I had crashed on Saturday, when I went down like a villain in descent (his last seasonal victory, ed). In the super-g, on the other hand, there is no corner where I have risked something: I find it hard to see this fall again, I can't explain it. My coach says it might be a lack of focus, others it might be a management problem. I believe I have a very strong physique, which tends to hide the technical deficiencies that sometimes come out.
In China I went into trouble. There was a bit of ice on the rink. I wanted to ski from day one, but I pulled the rope a bit and maybe I haven't managed so well. The day before the super-g I slipped to the third goal with the same dynamics as Cortina and I hit the nets. Bad everywhere. I got up with my leg trembling and I said to Rulfi: "But what the hell am I doing?". Thanks to the doctors and the work, I was already focused on the descent, but for that fall I thought that fate was giving me signals to stop, before something even worse happened.
What made me make a resounding click was the day of the first descent test. When I went on a reconnaissance and entered the house, I saw the five circles with the inscription Beijing 2022 and I said to myself: "My place is here, I'm here too". From there something incredible snapped: the track was smooth, there weren't many curves on the left foot, it wasn't a descent that required a lot of intensity. It was enough for me to stay balanced and push where I could. The track helped me a lot, with snow that was also quite easy. In the race, when I saw the green I was very happy, but I knew that just four tenths (the margin over Nadia Delago, who was in the lead at that moment) would probably not be enough ”.
Time to take stock? Yes, but “alla Goggia”, preparing a better future: “I don't believe in bad luck, but I think that nothing ever happens by chance. And when certain things happen to me I say to myself, like Balotelli, Why always me? If there's a girl who has amazing things happening to it, it's me. There is never anything normal. Even the car accident (in April 2019 in Sestriere): it's not like I'm going to do a "simple" rear-end collision, but I fall off an embankment and land on the roof of a van! They all happen to me ”.
Sofia, however, is already thinking about "putting the pieces together" for next season, perhaps to play also that World Cup which, until the famous left knee injury on 23 January, had become a real goal. “I'm trying to set the season and this upcoming Olympic four-year period to give stability to every aspect. I can't spoil anything, it's a "work in progress", but I'll try to fill in all my gaps - personal, emotional, technical, physical - to be a better person and athlete and finish a season without worries, as a normal person . Since the emotional load I had this year has really exhausted me ”.
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