Alpine Skiingthe interview
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SportNews intercepted the Slovak champion in Bolzano: between training at the Stelvio (with Alice Robinson) and a perfect preparation so far, Petra talks about herself just over a month from Soelden.
Friday 11 September 2020 7 minutes reading time
On October 17, Petra Vlhova will certainly be one of the great favorites of the opening on the Rettenbach, for a first female giant of the 2020/21 World Cup that never like this year will offer a stellar confrontation after months of fasting, even more so long than expected with the early closure of last season.
Viki Rebensburg, retired from competition, and almost certainly the injured Wendy Holdener will be missing, but from Federica Brignone to Mikaela Shiffrin, highly anticipated on her return, from Alice Robinson to Marta Bassino, in Soelden the show will be guaranteed with the same Vlhova who has all the intention to start on the right foot, as it did not happen in autumn 2019.
This year the preparation of the 25-year-old from Liptovsky Mikulas followed by Livio Magoni, has been really ideal since the lockdown, as Petra was able to work also in April on the Jasna snows and then from June she started pushing the Stelvio. After having worked on slalom and parallel also in the ski-dome of Druskininkai (Lithuania) in the first half of August, now the Stelvio has welcomed it from the beginning of September for a new long training camp, with the collaboration set up together with Alice Robinson's team who have already allowed the first comparisons with the phenomenal 18-year-old New Zealand.
Joined by her colleagues from SportNews, on Wednesday in Bolzano on the occasion of the appointment that the reigning giant world champion had at the Reusch headquarters, to work on the gloves that will also accompany her in the 2020/21 vintage, the Slovakian talked about herself on various issues, also returning to the 2019/2020 cup for which she does not want to have regrets, she who finished in third place without the possibility of trying to the end with the various cancellations of the last races. “More than anything else I was sorry to receive the two crystal balls (for winning the specialty cup in slalom and in parallel, the first in the history of Slovakia, ed) by post, without being able to celebrate with the team and fans. Health was a priority at that time and the World Cup took a back seat ”.
An absolute cup that Petra will try to play also in 2020/21: is that the great goal, even before the world championships in Cortina? "In Are I got three medals (gold in giant, silver in combined and bronze in slalom) and I would like to improve further in Cortina, but it is difficult to indicate a clear objective for the World Cup, also because we will not know in what conditions we will arrive towards the end next winter ". As for the World Cup, on a specific question about Mikaela Shiffrin and Federica Brignone, Vlhova indicates them as “the great opponents for the general, without forgetting that there are other athletes capable of always fighting at the top in several disciplines.
I will do everything to improve further in the coming weeks and to be there to play for it ”.
Petra is based in South Tyrol, taking advantage of a "perfect place to train and also ideal on a logistical level, close to the various locations of the World Cup", and says she feels "really good and with a great desire to start, also because the period of lockdown did not change my plans, since I was able to train practically all the time ”.
Finally, the possibility that most of the races will be held without an audience, as it will be in Soelden, for Vlhova “will be very strange, having never competed without spectators on the track. Millions of people will be able to follow us on TV, but it is a disappointment and certainly our sport will suffer from this situation ”.
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