Alpine Skiingwomen's world cup
2020 Getty Images
Journey into the "behind the scenes" of Vlhova's triumph, which on Monday will bring a historic World Cup to Slovakia. Livio Magoni, in his fifth season with Petra, took her to the top with an extraordinary job. "It is the passion that makes the difference".
Saturday 20 March 2021 8 minutes reading time
Many have called her the ice woman, but there is really a heart that beats strong, very strong, behind the new winner of the absolute crystal ball.
Petra Vlhova demonstrated it even today, experiencing a very difficult slalom on a mental level ("yesterday she had ridden twice in training, never happened", the confession of Livio Magoni) in that of Lenzerheide, she who carried the pressure on her shoulders of an entire country, so much so that the Slovak government had already arranged a World Cup celebration tour, in case of triumph.
Petra made it, writing a beautiful page of history since behind this champion there is a unique work by a special team, small but truly immense for professionalism and passion. Livio Magoni has been driving it for five years now, the one who won everything with Tina Maze, starting from that 2012/13 World Cup literally dominated with the record of points (2414) which will probably last for a long time, and universally recognized among the best technicians in the world for a decade now.
A tireless worker, capable of transforming Vlhova from a "simple" slalomist (the Slovakian had won a slalom, in Are in December 2015, before marrying the Magoni project) into an all-round skier, capable this year of catching even the first podium in speed, with that fabulous 2nd place in the super-g bis of Garmisch-Partenkirchen.
Petra was able to withstand exceptional loads, go through difficult moments on a technical and physical level (let's just think of the mandibular fracture remedied in training before the races in Val di Fassa), but also mentally given that seal in parallel to Lech, everyone was already giving it with the cup in hand.
A relationship, that between Vlhova and his largely Italian staff, born in spring 2016 and capable of climbing one step at a time, with ups and downs in the first two years, see the same disappointment of the missed Olympic medals at PyeongChang 2018, before of the trio of Are with the historic world title of giant and the first, real assault on the "coppone" last season, when the Slovakian missed 189 points to go get Federica Brignone, but in the meantime the first specialty globes arrived, between slalom and parallel.
Nothing was complained about in Team Vlhova, starting to work in full pandemic for this 2020/21 vintage, on skis since last April in Jasna to build the cup of 6 victories (now there are 20 total in career) and 1392 points. A project that will go on at least until Beijing 2022, with Livio Magoni at the head of a staff that foresees Matej Gemza as the second technician and physiotherapist, the Venetian Matteo Baldissarutti as coach and skiman as a reference figure as Gigi Parravicini has been for years , without forgetting Petra's brother, Boris, fundamental in a thousand aspects of such a job and also decisive on the moral level.
Already on Monday, after receiving the trophy on Sunday during the afternoon awards ceremony in Lenzerheide, Vlhova will bring the cup to Bratislava, and then get back on skis as Magoni has already foreseen an intense work program that will last until the end of April. "We have shown that even a small group, in any profession, can do great things and achieve great results - the words of the coach from Selvino at the end of this day so intense and at the same time wonderful - The important thing is to always put passion into it, each of us has sacrificed a lot to get to this point ”.
And the numbers for the 2020/21 season are simply impressive: 234 days of skiing for Petra, with 920 hours on the track and 3880 km covered, 25,532 poles in giant, 31890 in slalom, 6490 in super-g and 170 of downhill tests. The beauty of 37200 km is traveling, and we only think about what Magoni and his men did to reach Finland three weeks early in November, driving for almost two consecutive days (with all the problems related to Covid to make everything more difficult and stressful), or right after the Are races, returning to Bratislava to get back on the team's vehicles and again syrup thousands of km up to Lenzerheide.
Simply, we must bow to what not only Petra Vlhova did, but of a group of people who made a dream come true and beat all the great nations of the white circus. With professionalism, passion and a lot of courage.
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Video
Vlhova vince il primo slalom di Are e torna in vetta alla classifica
Eurosport, Friday 12 March 2021
Video
Vlhova trema: Coppa vicina, ma la sua prima manche nello slalom di Lenzerheide è sottotono
Eurosport, Saturday 20 March 2021
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